


Tough As Dragon Skin

by wolfiefics



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adventure, Dinosaurs, Dragons, F/M, Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Original Male Characters - Freeform, Romance, both wizard and Muggle, clueless Muggles, she just happens to be a Muggle, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-29 05:24:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 26,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19823449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfiefics/pseuds/wolfiefics
Summary: Charlie Weasley gets involved with an absent-minded Muggle paleontology professor while tracking down incriminating photos of a dragon.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written between Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix so canon for PS/SS, CoS, PoA and GoF but not for the rest of them. Yes, I've been writing fanfiction that long. No, I'm not ashamed of it. LOL!

"Uh - "

"Holy Hell! How'd she get loose?!"

"Uh - "

"Get the ropes!"

"Uh - "

"Ty! Where's Reggie?"

"Uh - "

"Tybalt! Where's Reggie?"

"Uh - " Tybalt Bancroft point up at the shiny pointed teeth of the female Norwegian Ridgeback. "She ate him," he informed his comrades in a high squeaky voice.

The other six men with Tybalt gaped at him a moment. One of the men, his flaming red hair and bright green eyes, groaned and ducked to miss being tumbled by a large, scaly tail as the female dragon turned around to lumber from the wizards that had been trying to transport her away from her nesting grounds.

"She's heading for the Muggle town!" shouted Marty Topper. "BROOMS!"

Charles Weasley, known to his friends as Charlie, gave Tybalt a shake before heading for his own broom in a vain hope that it would bring his friend from his self-imposed trance. "Come on, Ty! If that female gets to the village, there are going to be a lot of missing Muggles that is going to be hard to explain away!"

Tybalt didn't move for a minute but when he did, he quickly turned on his heel and bolted in the opposite direction of the dragon. "Damn," Charlie said, kicking the broom off the ground and watching his friend crash through the underbrush of the wooded area where they had stopped for lunch. "There goes another one."

His broom rose higher into the air but Charlie turned his attention from his fleeing comrade toward the enraged dragon quickly gaining ground on the small Romanian village. Most of the inhabitants were Gypsies, tied to the small town through various laws passed over the last few decades in Romania to keep them from their ancient nomadic lifestyle. A superstitious people, the last thing the Gypsies would need in this small village is a female Ridgeback stomping through, looking for her eggs, which were ahead of her in the relocation convoy.

With the ease that only an expert in Quidditch could manage, Charlie swooped between the leafy trees, dodging branches and birds without any difficulty. While the escape of the female Ridgeback was a major problem, it wasn't anything they hadn't planned for in advanced. Relocating dragons was always a tricky business. If one spell fizzled or one dragon broke free of restraints, there was always hell to pay, Muggle and Wizard alike. Charlie crossed his fingers a moment as he neared the dragon that their emergency plan would work.

"There you are!" called Marty, his long blonde hair whipping about his face. "Where's Ty?"

"Went running the other way," Charlie said with a shrug. "He *did* see his brother eaten by a dragon. Had to be a bit of shock."

"Damn," cursed Marty. "Okay, we can do this without the extra wand." Marty assured them but he sounded uncertain. "Ready wands!" The six men raised their right hands, varying length of sticks in their palms, all of them pointed at the dragon. "Steady! If we miss, we're in deep dragon dung!" They all took deep breaths.

"NOW!" Marty cried and the wands' tips burst out large showers of orange sparks that flew toward the dragon.

"STUPIFY!" they shouted in unison and the dragon stopped in her tracks, frozen.

"My God, we did it!" whooped Charlie, spinning his broom around in excited wonder. His friends did not share his jubilation, however, and he turned his head to see what had them so arrested.

The dragon had reached the village edge and was getting ready to teeter onto a house.

"Oh no."

With an almighty crash the dragon wiped out a house and a barn, easily demolishing the flimsy structures that were little more than mud bricks and thin wooden planks. The wizards swooped their brooms down out of sight immediately as people began pouring out of houses and public buildings, gaping at the huge creature, staring at them with her shocked eyes open wide and glassy. A few whisps of smoke filtered lazily out of the dragon's nostrils.

"Amos, get the ropes," Marty began ordering and pointing, "and take those two with you. We've got to get her out of that village. Charlie, you take the rest and start doing some damage control. I'll go back to camp and get an owl sent to the ministry so that they can send someone to - " Marty glanced up, blowing an errant strand of blonde hair out of his eyes. "Never mind."

The rest looked up as well. At least a dozen men and women mounted on broomsticks were zooming toward them. Charlie looked around. "Who Apparated?" he asked.

"I did!" puffed Tybalt as he sprinted toward them through the trees. "I knew we'd need help."

Marty glowered at him. "We could have handled this, Ty," he growled.

"No," Charlie told him honestly, "we couldn't, Marty. Tybalt, you did good." He placed a comforting hand on the younger man's shoulder. "Quick thinking."

"I wanted to run home and hide," confessed Tybalt as soon as Marty turned his back, "but I knew Reggie would drag himself out of the dragon just to kill me if I did."

"We might get him out yet. Did she chew him?" Charlie's face had lost its cheerful visage and he patiently waited for Tybalt to formulate an answer.

"I don't remember, Charlie," the young man confessed. "I don't think I watched much. I remember her grabbing him up and flopping him through the air and then..." His voice faltered.

"Doubtful she did anything but swallow him. We'll do a check. He might just be slimy and really grossed out is all." Ty looked slightly hopeful but not too much, as if Charlie were just giving him false hopes.

"Hey!" Charlie waved a hand at several wizards crowding around the dragon. "We got a man in there, possibly not chewed! Can you guys help us get him out?"

The wizards looked up and several smiled tightly. "That him banging on the ribcage?" asked an old man with no teeth and grizzled hair. He had a blackened look about him that spoke of many close calls with bursts of flames.

Charlie listened and heard faintly Reggie's voice screaming and begging to be gotten out. He grinned at Ty, who looked relieved. "Yeah, that would be him."

"Okay!" shouted the old man. "We got a rescue operation to start! Get these Muggles outta the way!"

The group worked with the old man on the dragon while the rest of the ministry wizards went around to clear from Muggle minds the entire incident. Charlie was glad he wasn't them; he'd never been good at the 'obliviate' spell. Bill should have been an Obliviator, though, he reckoned, instead going off to Egypt for Gringotts, the wizards bank.

Shaking his mind from reverie, Charlie worked with his comrades to get the dragon safely moved to her new location and to rebuild the destroyed home and barn. They were all thankful that no one had been in the home at the time of the dragon's loss of balance.

* * *

Samuel Hill stayed hidden in the bushes, watching the strangely dressed men work moving the dragon. He also kept a keen an eye on the men around the village, pointing sticks at the villagers and chanting strange words. The strangers spoke sentences with words like 'dragon' and 'magic', 'wizard' and 'wand' like they were commonplace and ordinary. Sam swallowed, clutching his camera tightly. He'd come to take a look at a find, but he found more than he'd bargained for, that was certain. The light faded away and darkness took over the woods. Romania was still an extraordinarily backward country and Sam had landed in the most archaic town in the whole country. There were no street lamps and paved roads were unheard of. He cautiously made his way toward his little inn and the clunker car that he had gotten at the airport in Bucharest. 

He slipped in through the driver's door and took a deep breath. His hand shook as he shoved the key into the ignition and started the engine. He carefully pulled out of the tiny driveway and headed for the main road. Sam had been in the backwater town long enough that he knew an alternate route out of town and knew how to go around the town to head for the capital city. 

An hour later, he relaxed, feeling he'd made it home free. He even started whistling a bit, pleased with his smooth getaway. 

The camera was sitting next to him and Sam took a deep breath. In that piece of metal and plastic was information that would revolutionize his fiancee's life. He smiled to himself. Yes, for that one photo, Natty would move up the wedding date. He'd have everything he wanted then. 

* * *

Natalie Greene blew a strand of blonde hair out of her vision and frowned at the document in front of her. She could read the most complicated treatise on the Pliocene period and how it shaped later periods like the Cretaceous, but give her a simple document like a car title and she was lost on what to do with it. 

She looked up and smiled wanly at the unimpressed title clerk. "I, uh, think I forgot something?" Nat squeaked pushing the title forward nervously, knowing she looked like an idiot. 

The clerk flipped through the documents. "You have everything except the bill of sale," the clerk said in a bored tone, as if she'd been doing it all day. Nat grimaced when she glanced nervously at the clock. The woman probably had been; it was three in the afternoon. 

"Oh. That's bad?" 

The clerk rolled her eyes and handed her a slip of paper from a dwindled stack at her elbow. "You need these items to get the tags, miss. Come back with them and we'll get you fixed up." Nat gave another weak smile, gathered the multitude of papers and scurried away, ignoring the muttered comment the clerk made about college professors and their lack of common sense. In her case, Nat knew, it was entirely true. What she had in genius she lacked in common sense. She was the type, her father often said in fond exasperation, that was so intelligent that she didn't know enough to come in out of the rain, mainly because she hadn't read that rain made one wet. 

Nat slumped in the car and stared blankly at the tag office building. She felt like crying. She'd wasted most of an afternoon sitting in that building for nothing. Doing common place errands was what Sam was good at. She wryly smiled to herself. Or rather, all he was good for. 

She and her fiance had known each other since their first year in college. He'd fallen for her, convinced he was the love of her life. Nat had ignored him for the most part but as time went on, she began to depend on him to take care of the pesky details of everyday life while she concentrated on her precious bones and digs. 

Every summer, Natalie would disappear to places like South America, the American West and Eastern Europe, digging up fossils and locating new dig sites for possible future dinosaur finds. Sam followed her around and organized her chaotic life. 

Now, though, Nat was stuck in the boring US of A while Sam went haring off to Romania to check out a possible find. She was uncomfortable with the idea of Sam knowing what he was looking at. They were complete opposites. Sam wouldn't know a dog femur from a pterodactyl finger bone if it bit him. 

She sighed again and started the car. As she pulled out of the parking lot, she grabbed her cellphone and checked her messages. 

There were eight messages from Sam. Nat frowned as she listened to the repeating messages of excitement. Obviously she should check her messages more than twice a week. 

"Natty, it's me! It's Sam! Listen, baby, you won't believe what I got pictures of! I'm in Bucharest airport..." 

"Natty, damn it, why aren't you calling me back! It's Sam, I'm in Paris...." 

"Natty, unbelievable pictures. When I get to our London flat, I'll email them...." 

"Where are you? Have you checked your email yet? Natty! You won't believe what I found! I'm getting ready to take the flight from Heathrow to JFK..." 

"You turn on the computer by pushing the power button. Don't forget to turn on the monitor..." His sarcasm was evident. 

In irritation, she slammed the phone down and swerved to miss a parked car on the road, it's emergency lights flashing. "I hate you sometimes, Sam," she muttered.


	2. Chapter 2

"And there was a missing Muggle?"

The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, glared at them all and Marty fidgeted. Charlie stood his ground, his respect for Fudge quite diminished after the politician's foolhardy move to ignore the fact that the wizarding community's greatest enemy, Lord Voldemort, was back. Determined not to be bullied by the blow-hard, Charlie stared back.

"Yes sir, we didn't realize he was missing until we overheard the inn proprietor talking about the American who had left town without paying for his rooms. They were delighted because he left everything he had, clothes, toiletries, everything." Marty nudged him when he hesitated. "They said he'd been taking pictures of some fossilized bones a few kilometers away, up in the mountains. A recent earthquake had revealed them, they said, and he was from an American university wanting to study them."

Marty coughed. "He had a camera, Mr. Fudge. We think he took pictures of the dragon."

Fudge went purple and collapsed in his chair. "He what?" he gasped faintly.

Charlie pressed on when Marty fell silent again, looking a bit faint himself. "They said he had a fancy camera that didn't need film." Fudge's eyes closed in horror at the mere idea of a Muggle camera like that with pictures of the dragon inside it. "He left some identification in his room, sir, and I'd like to follow this up. I can find him and curtail any problems that could arise."

Fudge eyed him a moment and then slumped back again. "You are Arthur Weasley's son, aren't you?"

"Yes, sir." Charlie resisted the urge to fidget. His father's reputation was for being a Muggle-lover and that usually wasn't considered 'the thing' for wizards.

"Very well, but if you screw this up..." Fudge threatened wearily but Charlie had already left the room, striding out before the sentence even ended.

Marty hurried after him. "What are you doing? Are you nuts? You don't anything about Muggles! Let the Department for the Misuse of Magic handle this. Someone with experience with Muggles."

"Who?" Charlie turned on his friend and Marty gaped at him. "Who would you recommend? We're all clueless, Marty and it was our mistake. I can do this, you just get that Ridgeback settled in and finish our job, okay?" He gave his blonde friend a pat on the back and left the Ministry of Magic building.

A few moments later he was in the front yard of his parents' home. It was a lopsided, goofy-looking house but Charlie loved it. It had character. The summer sun beamed down on his mother's gardenias where a garden gnome peeked suspiciously at him around several abnormally tall stems.

Charlie took a deep breath and readied himself for the stampede of people who would be coming to greet him.

"Charlie!" Molly Weasley, an apron wrapped around her plump middle, came scurrying out, holding her arms out for a hug from her second eldest son.

"Hello, Mum." He smiled as he felt something slimy hit his back and dribble down. "Fred, George, do either of you want to live to your next birthday?"

Two redheaded boys of identical temperament, natures, and looks came sauntering around their mother and older brother, with identical outraged expressions on their faces.  
Fred gave his brother a rude gesture with one finger behind his mother's back while George began to make faces as he spoke, "Here we welcome our older brother with typical brotherly affection and he threatens our lives. Mother, are you going to allow such a thing occur?"

Molly didn't even blink or turn to her twin boys as she spoke, "I'll help him."

The twins cackled as they charged into the house, evidently to hide from their 'dangerous' family but more than likely to wreak more havoc. "You and Dad haven't killed them yet?" Charlie asked with a grin.

Molly smiled broadly, dragging him toward the house in a motherly fashion. "We were waiting for you and Bill to do it for us."

"Now you tell us," Charlie complained good-naturedly. "If we'd known that, they would have been dead a long time ago." His mother merely patted his arm in typical maternal fashion. The radio was blaring music in the kitchen and the broom was moving in time the fast beat, surprisingly graceful despite the pace.

He sat down in the chair. "It's good to be home," he sighed. It was, he knew. No matter what happened and where he went, the extremely crooked house that the Weasley family affectionately called The Burrow would always be home.

"CHARLIE!" squealed a voice and he turned in time to catch his only sister in his arms. "You're home!"

He bussed her cheek with great affection and then set her on her feet. He looked her over and realized with a skipped heartbeat that his little sister was growing up. "Wow, Ginny, look at you!" Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail but her shining face was losing the baby fat, as was her figure, both of which were trimming up nicely. She was going to be a heartbreaker, Charlie realized. "I see that your big brothers are going to have to beat the guys off with sticks."

Ginny blushed bright red to the roots of her orangish-red hair. Charlie grinned at her. There wasn't a Weasley yet spared of the orange-red mass of hair.

The twins came into the kitchen and they sat around chatting until the patriarch of the large family came home.

Mr. Weasley looked like the rest of his family with red hair, laughing eyes and a freckled face. Normally a jovial individual with a slight absentminded air at times, Arthur Weasley could be serious and cunning when needed. It was that cunning and intelligence that Charlie was hoping to tap into this evening and was the real purpose of the visit to his family home.

After dinner and more chattering, discovering that his other two brothers Ron and Bill were out on errands before Bill went back to Egypt, Charlie decided that it was time to get to the point of his visit. Percy, the brother one step above the twins, spent the dinner pompously bragging about things he'd been doing in the Ministry. Everyone loved Percy but the urge to dunk him a tub of cold water was always strong.

"Dad, can I speak with you?" Charlie asked as the family pushed away from the table.

Arthur gave his son a long look and nodded heavily. "Wondered when you'd want to."

Ignoring the family's curious looks, father and son went out to the front yard to sit and talk. "Then you've heard about Romania?"

Arthur gave a weary laugh. "Everyone at the Ministry of late seems to want to make sure that I know every mistake anyone named Weasley makes." Charlie winced and his father slapped him on the back. "I'm still proud of all of you, son, and don't you ever think otherwise. Now what is it that you need? Money? Advice?"

Charlie swallowed. "No, I..." His voice trailed off. "I'm going to America to find that Muggle that could have taken pictures of the dragon, Dad." He paused. "How much did you hear?"

His father shook his head. "Just that a dragon destroyed a Muggle town." Charlie filled him in with the rest of the information and his father sat in silence for a long while pondering what his son had told him. "I know it doesn't sound dangerous, son, but be careful anyway. If this Muggle was looking at bones then he was probably an historian or something. You know how those scholar types are, they can be obsessive." Charlie resisted the urge to look toward his father's workshop where all sorts of Muggle objects his father collected resided. Muggles and everything associated with those non-magical beings was intensely fascinating to his father.

"I know, Father, I'll be careful. I just wanted you to know. If something happens I'll contact you. I just thought maybe you might have something else useful to tell me or something." Charlie shrugged. "You're the Muggle expert."

His father gave a loud laugh. "I have discovered since having Ron's friends stay summers with us I don't know as much as I thought I did." Ron's friends, Hermione Granger and the famous Harry Potter, lived in the Muggle world during the summers, and therefore knew all about telephones, electricity, television and automobiles.

"Okay, I'd better get moving." Charlie stood up and stuck his hand out for his father to shake goodbye. The older Weasley skipped the formality and hugged his son tight.

"You be careful, now, Charlie," Arthur said seriously. "Just get those photos, do a Memory Charm to those who've seen them and get home. This has the potential to be very dangerous for all of us."

"I know, Dad." Charlie looked toward the brightly lit house. "Tell them good-bye for me."

Arthur nodded. "I will," he assured his son. Charlie raised his wand and Apparated back to London and his port key transportation to America.

Molly came out a moment after her son left and looked at her husband worriedly. "Is he in trouble?"

Arthur blew air out of his mouth in a rush. "Possibly," he allowed. "If it isn't resolved, Molly, this could blow up in our faces and be the end of my career, Percy's career, and Fred, George, and Ron may not even get a chance to start their own. It might not affect Bill, but you never know."

"That bad?" she asked, chewing on her bottom lip, staring out at the distant lights of the nearby town.

"Yes," he nodded. "The Ministry will do anything right now to discredit any supporters of Albus Dumbledore, Molly, and the name Weasley tops the list."

"Oh dear." Molly looked distressed and Arthur took pity on his wife. She had a keen intellect and tough nature. He proceeded to tell her everything.

* * *

"Natty!" Sam came charging through her office door and she glared at him while he huffed and puffed for breath. "Did you see them?" 

"All that fuss," she said in a clipped tone, "for pictures of a dragon?" 

Sam missed the sarcasm. "Yes!" he enthused. "You should have seen this thing, Natty! It was huge and it actually ate someone! These guys were following it, like keepers or handlers or something. It was fantastic!" 

"Yes, I'm sure it was," she said with an unappreciative sniff. Her look was scathing. "I sent you to find dinosaurs and you send me instead Puff the Magic Dragon." 

Sam stared at her, realizing finally that she didn't believe him or the photos. "They're real, Natty," he said in a serious tone. 

She stood up. "What? They had a still life statue and you thought it would be cute to take a picture and get all worked up about it?" She stalked around her desk and he swallowed. "I should have gone myself. Did you get pictures and sketches of the dig site? What did the seismographer say? I know what he said. He said, 'Doctor Greene, he wasn't here when we got here and he left a bill at the boarding house. They made us pay it.' That's what the seismographer said." 

"Natty, please, did you get the photos proofed?" Sam begged, sensing he'd fumbled and wasn't sure how to extricate himself from the situation. 

Nat turned on him. "Don't call me that. I hate being called that, and no, I didn't!" She threw her hands in the air. "I have better things to do with my time than fly all the way to Romania, ring up a tab on the University account that my girlfriend was written up for by the Board, taking pictures of fantasy creatures better suited to be in an Andre Norton book and hacking me off!" She jabbed her index finger in his chest hard, making him wince and back up more. "Get out! If I see you in the next three days, I will kill you and forget that I did it after I hide the body." 

"Natty," he whined but her dagger look made him stop and leave the room in two strides. "Damn it," he swore as the door slammed shut behind him. "I'll prove they aren't fake!" For a moment, he saw the upped wedding date slipping away, among other things. 

* * *

Charlie read the little plastic plaque, assuring himself that he was at the right office. The receptionist wasn't clear about where he would find Dr. N. Greene as she put fingernail polish on nails as long as stilettos. He tugged once at the tie of the nice Muggle suit he'd put on to look professional for the occasion. When he rapped on the door with his knuckles, it echoed down the deserted, uncarpeted corridor. 

There was a mumble inside of which he couldn't distinguish. He had a hard time understanding Americans most of the time anyway. Thinking it would be better than just opening the door, he knocked again. 

"Come. In." The response was clipped and angry. Charlie swallowed hard. And female. He hadn't bothered to see what the N in Dr. N. Greene stood for. 

He gingerly opened the door and came face to face with a grinning, pointed head of some beast no doubt deceased for several thousand years. "Um, Dr. Greene?" 

"Come in and shut the door behind you." The voice was distracted and he doubted she even realized who was in the room. Sure enough, behind a crowded desk, bent over papers, blonde hair haphazardly put up with several pencils, was a trim, petite woman, glasses on the tip of her nose and blue eyes narrowed on the script. She hadn't looked up to see who entered. "What can I help you with?" she asked, still not looking up. 

"I need to talk to you about a recent project you were involved with in Romania," he began but stopped when she tossed the pen in her hand at him in agitation. He dodged the missile and blinked. He was staring into eyes as blue as the sky over the Burrow. "I - uh - " he faltered for words. 

"Did Sam put you up to this?" she snapped at him. 

Charlie's mind grabbed for a name that could be Sam. "Mr. Samuel Hill, you mean?" he stumbled. 

"Yes," she snapped again. "Mr. Samuel 'Soon To Be Deceased' Hill. That would be him." 

"Actually I'm looking for a Dr. N. Greene and a Mr. Samuel Hill, yes," Charlie began again. "I represent some people involved in an incident in Romania and would like to talk to you about it." 

Her blue eyes widened, intensifying her natural startled deer look. "What did he do? Oh God," she groaned, sinking back into her chair and looking around in confusion. "I thought all his bills were covered by the University. You mean there are more? I can assure you that I'm good for the amount, Mr. - " Her expression went blank as her brain searched for his name, not realizing it had never been supplied. 

"Weasley, ma'am," he supplied. "Charles Weasley for the Ministry of - " he faltered, "Creatures," in amendment. 

"Creatures?" she said weakly. Then comprehension dawned. "The photos weren't of some statue? I'll kill him!" She bounced from her chair. "If he was taking pictures of some illegal goings-on and is now wanted by the law, you can have him. I swear, Mr. Weasley, I'll turn him over to you myself. I do not believe that people could be so cruel as to harm animals in such a way. I saw the pictures, they were just awful!" 

Charlie blinked, not having the slightest idea what she was talking about. "I just need the photos, please, ma'am, it's extremely important. Do you know who else may have seen the photographs?" 

The woman collapsed again, staring at him as if she'd only seen him for the first time, as if he'd been invisible. "The pictures?" she asked stupidly. She looked around her desk and frantically began to shuffle papers around, peering under them as if searching for something. "I think they might be here. Or at least copies of them. I'm sure Sam kept copies as well." 

Charlie suppressed a groan. That was all he needed, multiple copies of a dragon parading around a Muggle town. "Dr. Greene, if you could give me Mr. Hill's address, it would be appreciated. This is a sensitive subject." 

The woman's gaze jerked back to his and her mouth formed an O-shape. Dawning comprehension glistened in her eyes and then she swallowed. "Oh sure." She grabbed a scrap of paper and scribbled some numbers on it. "This is his cellphone number, home number and address. One of those should reach him." 

Charlie took the proffered paper, inwardly quaking. He had no idea what a 'cellphone' was and he'd only seen a telephone being used by Muggles; he had never operated one himself. "Thank you." 

"No problem. Let me look for those photos. I might have thrown them at him when he left this afternoon." She gave him an apologetic look and began searching again. For five minutes Charlie watched as the woman bustled around her office, grumbling to herself as she looked. She finally came up empty-handed and turned to shrug at him. "I guess I don't have them after all. They'd be close to the surface of my," she grimaced at the mess on her desk and file cabinet, "organizational system." 

Charlie coughed to cover a laugh. "Yes, well, thank you for your cooperation, Dr. Greene." He hesitated, hating to do what he knew he had to do next. He pulled his wand out of his sleeve where he had shoved it, having no other place to put it. He raised it, pointed in her direction. She stared at him and the wand with curious apprehension. "Obliviate!" he said and his wand sputtered, shooting out sparks. 

Nat had watched as the handsome man had drawn a stick out of his sleeve and pointed it at her. Stunned at the ridiculous sight but alarmed nonetheless, Nat considered running or screaming when he spoke. Whatever was supposed to happen didn't happen, because when sparks shot from wand and left her unharmed, he had a crestfallen look on his face. 

"Look, if you want me to forget that you were ever here," she said nervously, "that won't be a problem. I sometimes don't even remember my own cat's name. I'm the stereotypical absent-minded professor." Grasping at anything to convince him of this and not hurt her, Nat looked at her watch, grimacing that it was eight o'clock. "In fact, I forgot to eat today, well, if you don't count the bagel and yogurt I had for breakfast." She frowned, thinking hard. "Or was that yesterday's breakfast? See?" she babbled. "I can't even remember if I've eaten or not. I'm harmless, really, so you don't have to worry about me!" 

Charlie gaped at her as she babbled at him and when she'd wound down he couldn't help it. He broke into laughter. She looked so adorably desperate that he was amused. As he laughed Nat became incensed, sputtering at him unintelligibly, which caused him to laugh harder. 

"S-sorry," he gasped. "I was never very good at that and it's b-been a tense day." 

"Tell me about it," she muttered. 

"Trust me, you don't want to know," he said with a grin, mistaking her comment as an invitation to talk instead of a comment designed to tell him that she knew about tense days. 

She blinked. "Look, if you want, let's go eat and then I'll take you to Sam's. There I will let you brow-beat him into forking over the photos and get a measure of revenge out of it." 

Charlie had no idea what she said beyond food and going to Sam Hill's home, so he nodded. "Sure. That's fine." 

"Mind if I call you Charles?" she asked, walking back to her desk and opening a desk drawer. She pulled out a bulky large purse. 

"How about Charlie?" he said, still amused. Her handbag looked just like his mother's. "Should I call you Dr. Greene?" 

Nat paused and then shrugged. "My name is Natalie. Call me Nat. Call me Natty and you die. I hate that." 

Charlie nodded amiably. "That works for me, Nat." He followed her out of the office, watched her lock the door and they strolled down the corridor. "This is different than the school I went to," he said conversationally. 

Nat gave him a surprised look. The University of Massachusetts was no different than any other university in her estimation. "Where did you go to school?" she asked. 

Charlie could have slapped himself. "A small school in Britain," he said vaguely. "You've never heard of it." 

"Are you sure? I did time in England you know. Worked with the British Museum as an intern. You'd be surprised the universities and schools they cooperate with." 

Feeling slightly panicked Charlie blurted, "It's a small one in Scotland actually. Its more local." 

"Oh!" Nat gave him a pitying look, making him wonder how she read his statement. "Don't worry, I'm not an education snob. The size of your college makes no difference to me." She waved a hand dismissively and Charlie belatedly realized that she probably thought he was poorly educated. 

He hurried to correct her assumption. "It's an excellent school, just small." 

"I understand, Charlie, you don't have to assure me. My brother went to junior college and then a technical school before going to university." Nat dismissed the subject from her mind as settled and ignored the fact that Charlie looked still disgruntled. 

They reached the parking lot and Nat hesitated. "Your car or mine?" she asked. 

"Yours," he said instantly, grateful when she only smiled at him and took a set of keys from a side pocket of her purse. His stomach dropped when she walked over to a tiny vehicle of a baby blue color. She unlocked the left-side door, climbed in, reached over and unlocked the other side. Charlie stared at the vehicle, wondering how he was going to fit in there. Finally, he took a deep breath, pushed in the button on the handle and jerked the door open. 

"Is there a problem?" Nat asked, having noticed his hesitation. 

"Just wondering if I was going to fit," Charlie answered, folding himself into the passenger seat. American cars were setup differently he noted. The driver was on the left, passenger on the right. He'd have to tell his father this interesting little tidbit. 

Nat gave a short laugh and started the engine, which roared to life, startling Charlie. "Little car, big mouth," he said with a grin. She laughed again. 

"So where to? Fancy dinner or hamburgers?" She raised a fine blonde eyebrow at him. 

"Uh-" 

"Ooo, my favorite restaurant." Nat chuckled when he looked at her strangely. "Sorry, that's what I always say when Sam asks me that same question." 

"Oh." Charlie smiled in relief. "Whatever is fine with me." Then he kicked himself. He didn't have any Muggle money! 

"Tell you what, I'll treat you to the local bistro. They have great sandwiches and a nice atmosphere," Nat suggested, oblivious to the fact that Charlie's face was a portrait of relief and horror. He had no idea what a bistro was or what it served. "Are you from London then?" 

"That's where my agency has a division, yes," he hedged carefully. 

"I loved London. So busy and alive. Could have done without the pollution though." Nat laughed. "Says the girl who was raised in Los Angeles." 

"California girl, eh?" Charlie ran a hand nervously through his red-hair. "Is that where you met Mr. Hill?" 

"Oh no," said Nat airily. "We met in college. I mean as students. We both went to Harvard." Charlie vaguely recognized that Harvard was a prestigious Muggle American college. "He's from a poor family but he's an okay guy, I guess. My mother says I'm marrying him because he's a habit more than anything else." 

Charlie stared at her a moment. "Are you saying you're engaged to him, but you don't love him?" 

Nat shrugged. "Love isn't required in marriage," she told him. "It would be nice, but not required. Sam takes care of those everyday details I'm horrible at. I can't even register and tag a new car," she confessed sheepishly. "I broke the microwave by putting an aluminum bowl in it. I didn't know you couldn't do that!" Charlie was grateful for the information and stored it away. He hadn't known that either, but then he wasn't exactly sure what a microwave was. He thought it might be like an oven but wasn't positive. "Sam does the day to day stuff, leaving me to my studies." Nat shrugged. "It's a livable arrangement, I suppose." 

"Sounds depressing to me," Charlie muttered, staring out the window as they passed various closed shops and street lights. 

"Why?" asked Nat. "It worked for my parents, not being in love I mean. They were happy enough. Raised me and my brother. Are your parents still married?" 

Charlie thought to his plump mother and absent-minded father and smiled. "Yeah, they're still married. In fact, I don't think anyone would have my father other than my mother. He's the eldest of her children, that's the family joke." 

Nat smiled, sensing his fondness for his family. "Brothers? Sisters?" she prompted curiously, wanting to know more about this red-haired stranger in her car for some reason. 

"One sister, Ginny, she's the youngest. The rest of us are boys. Six boys, all with red hair. There's Bill, me, Percy, the twins Fred and George, and lastly Ron." Charlie checked his siblings off on his fingers. 

"Seven of you?" Nat asked in disbelief and when he nodded she whistled. "Wow. I thought my brother was a handful." 

"What does he do?" Charlie asked. 

"Oh he's an archaeologist. I dig up dead animals. He digs up dead humans. Right now he's in Peru hunting down mummies." Nat snickered. "I keep telling him that he's got the boring job, but he enjoys it. Too bad it doesn't keep him out of trouble." 

Charlie relaxed. "My brother Bill is in Egypt." He mentally added, 'looking for gold and jewels not mummies'. "Percy works for the government, as does my father. The others are still in school, though I doubt Fred and George will do much more than open a practical joke shop." 

"You always need laughter, Charlie," Nat informed him loftily. "Sam is family I suppose, getting back to the original subject. He majored in business and accounting but spends most of his time badgering me about this or that piddly detail." 

She gave an unhappy sigh. 

"You don't sound happy," Charlie commented blandly. 

Nat shrugged. "I'm content. That's all I can expect." 

Charlie still thought it sounded downright depressing but didn't make any further comments. 

Dinner was enjoyable enough. The bistro served fancy sandwiches and a half-way decent ale. Nat insisted on paying, to Charlie's relief. Once finished the two of them climbed back into the tiny car and Nat drove to Sam's condominium. 

He wasn't there. Nat didn't seem surprised. "Well, now you know where it is," she told him. "I'll take you back to the university and get your car. Have you got a card? If I see him tomorrow, I can give it to him." 

Brought back to the task at hand, Charlie decided to give the Obliviate spell one more shot. Nat parked the car in the college parking lot and he opened the door. He climbed out. "No, I don't have a card. I'll find him. Thanks for dinner and your help, Nat." She smiled at him. He grasped the tip of his wand, which had been pushed back up his sleeve, and hesitated. Instead of pulling it out and trying the charm again, he merely shut the car door firmly and waved as she drove off. 

"Damn it," he groused. "I shouldn't have done that."


	3. Chapter 3

"Someone was looking for you last night concerning Romania. What did you do that you didn't bother to tell me this time?"

Sam froze at the sound of Nat's voice, still cold and angry. He'd been hoping she'd gotten wrapped up in something Jurassic and had forgotten by now. Obviously he'd been mistaken. 

"Natty!" He turned around and gestured expansively. "I honestly thought you'd like the little joke. Of course, I have all the information you want -" 

"And you're a liar." Nat was standing next to the gate of his condo's courtyard. "I can't believe you, Mr. Anal Accountant, not only wasted money on such a 'prank' but also didn't consider how it would affect me." 

Something in her voice gave Sam pause. "What do you mean?" 

"It turns out that your little prank backfired on both of us. I'm fired. My tenure was rejected, as was my grant for that dig in Antartica. They told me I had a week to pack my office and be gone. They've hired Hucksley to finish teaching my classes. Hucksley, the looney bin nutcase with the theory about global warming being the reason the evolution of man developed!" 

He gaped at her; he couldn't help it. 

"I don't know what you stumbled into but it involves the British government. I reported you, Sam, because it looked like you'd gotten incriminating evidence of some unethical animal treatments. Instead of reporting it to the proper authorities you turned it into a joke on me." 

"How do they get off sacking you for it?" he wanted to know, his mind going numb. He had fudged things in a big way and, for the life of him, Sam had no idea how it had happened. 

Nat approached him, gripping her heavy black bag like she was going to swing it at him. "Because I authorized them to pay all your bills and begged them to let you go in my place. I vouched for you and you screwed it up, Sam. In a very, very big way. I do so hope you're happy." 

Sam swallowed and closed his eyes. It had gone wrong. "Maybe I should have sold them to the National Enquirer," he muttered to himself. "I'd have gotten more out of it." 

"Excuse me?" Nat's voice was sharp and his eyes flew open guiltily. "I had a British official crawling all over my office last night, Sam. To save your hide, I purposefully couldn't find those photos you gave me and this is what I get in return." She bashed him with her purse and he could see tears welling in her blue eyes. "I know I'm not the person with common sense and yes, I forget to do things like eat and no, I have no idea where the milk aisle is at the grocery store, but you know what, I thought I engendered some respect from you. Obviously I was mistaken! We're finished. I'll just have to muddle through life without you." 

She stalked away and Sam saw his dreams trickling away with her every step. "Nat! Wait! I didn't know..." 

"Get stuffed, Samuel Hill." 

* * *

Charlie watched the exchange between Nat Greene and Sam Hill rather guiltily. Some of the blame for her circumstances fell on him as well. If the dragon hadn't gotten away - He shook himself. It was done. He had to get those pictures, wipe their memories and get back before Fudge sent the Ministry in. He was loathe to have Ministry representatives in on this, though he didn't know why. 

Nat got into her little baby blue car and started the engine. It roared to life, making Charlie smile a bit. It sounded like a baby Chinese Fireball. Wrong color, but same sound. Sam was bleating platitudes at her window but a burst of music suddenly blared from within her vehicle. She must have turned on the radio loud enough to drown him out. 

In a sudden burst of anger, Hill kicked one of her tires and stalked to his own car. Charlie took this moment to step from his hiding place and approach. 

"Mr. Samuel Hill?" he asked in his most officious tone. Hill slowed his angry pace to his own black vehicle. "Are you Mr. Samuel Hill?" 

"Yes," said Hill slowly, warily. 

"I'm Charles Weasley, I work for the British Ministry." He smiled sternly at Hill. "I'd like to ask you a few questions..." His voice trailed off and he pulled his wand quickly and pointed it at Hill. "OBLIVIATE!" 

The wand shot forth red sparks and a beam of red light headed right for the American. Hill, already wary, managed to barely leap out of the way and ran screaming toward his former fiancee's car. Charlie, cursing his really bad luck so far, gave chase. He caught up with Hill, who was now pounding on the window. 

"Did you see that?" demanded Hill as Nat rolled down her window in exasperation. "He tried to shoot me with his wand!" 

"If I had a gun, I'd shoot you if I knew how," snapped Nat. "Hello, Charlie." 

"You're on first name basis with him?" squeaked Hill in horror. 'I'm sunk,' he thought to himself. 'No doubt this wizard guy has cast some spell on her. Any chance I have of living off her is shot to hell. I'm outta here.' 

Sam pulled up the manual lock and opened the door in one fluid motion, pulling a startled Natalie from her driver's seat. He held her in front of him like a shield. "Stay back, Weasel, or I'll..." 

"You'll do what?" snapped Natalie and she suddenly found herself flying at the Englishman. 

Charlie caught an armful of hellcat, astonished by the change that came over the scatterbrained young woman. She tried to turn in his arms and go after her former fiance but he pulled her out of the way as Hill put the car in reverse and sped out of the parking lot. 

"Come on!" Charlie told her, dragging her to Hill's car. "He dropped his keys when I tried to talk to him. Can you drive his car?" 

Nat's lips thinned and her eyes sparked behind her glasses. "You better believe it, buster!" she growled and unlocked the other car. She scrambled into the sports car and hit the unlock button on the driver's side door. "This used to be my car but he wanted the sporty model so I took the practical little thing he just drove off in." 

Charlie slid in and slammed the door just as she threw the car in reverse and peeled out of the parking lot as well. He fought a sense of unease and instead scanned the cars in front of them for her vehicle. "Where's he going?" 

Nat grinned. "He's got to go to his office. The only place he has the equipment for his digital camera is at work. That's where he would have stored his own copies. He muttered something about the National Enquirer." 

"Isn't that a scandal rag newspaper?" asked Charlie, recalling the name from somewhere in the deep recess of his memory. 

"Yeah, but it's called garbage over here. My sister-in-law thinks it's an amusing read." Nat grimaced. "I never liked her much but my brother thinks the sun rises and sets on her." 

"Okay, he's going to his office to get more copies of the pictures, I got that," elaborated Charlie. "Then what will he do?" 

She shrugged. "I have no idea. I already feel like I'm in a James Bond flick, except, no offense, Sean Connery is cuter." 

Charlie hadn't the faintest idea who Sean Connery was so he couldn't argue the point. He was startled to discover he felt slightly jealous of this Connery guy, though, whoever he was. "No offense taken," he assured her all the same. "One step at a time then. His office and we'll see if he's there, okay?" 

"Sure." She made several turns and then screeched to a halt next to the baby blue car. "Aha!" she cried. 

Charlie didn't bother with the exclamations but fell out of the car and scrambled to his feet. He followed Nat into the building they'd parked in front of just as she careened right into Hill as he came barreling out. In his hands were some file folders and several disks. 

"Ah!" yelled Hill as his armful of evidence went all over the place. 

Saying to hell with keeping secrets for the time being, Charlie began blasting the evidence where it lay or floated, sizzling them to nothingness with several well-aimed Incendio charms. Both Nat and Sam gaped a moment before Nat had the presence of mind to turn around and sucker punch Sam in the jaw. He went down like a sack of rocks and Nat turned a self-satisfied grin to Charlie. 

Charlie smiled back, wishing he didn't have to do what he was going to do next. He pointed his wand at her and her eyes showed surprise and fright right before he obliviated away her memory. Charlie led her to her car and placed her in it. 

He then picked Hill up and slapped him back to consciousness, repeating the memory charm on the groggy man. He then placed Hill in his car. 

And with a final sigh of regret, Charlie Apparated back to his hotel room. 

* * *

Nat ruffled through her pantry looking for a spare tissue box but there wasn't one. She resorted to blowing her nose with toilet paper instead. For the past three days she'd been a nervous wreck. She had no memory of being fired, but according to the Board of Trustees for the University, that was exactly what she was. Something about Sam and something he did in Romania. She was still fuzzy on the details. 

She was fuzzy on a lot of details from the preceding week in fact. She spent most of the first evening bawling on the phone first with her brother in Peru and then with her mother, who was currently in Paris, helping restore some musty painting of some artist that Nat currently couldn't remember. 

Not that it mattered anyway. Mother never did have much sympathy for her daughter's troubles. Daddy was appropriately outraged at the treatment of his daughter and he was worried too. Hell, so was Natalie. She couldn't remember a thing that had happened in the past week before she suddenly seemed to come from a fog in her car, which was parked next to the car belonging to her equally fuzzy fiance. 

One thing stuck in her head from that missing week that she couldn't shake. It was a name. 

Charlie Weasley. 

She was certain she'd never heard the name Weasley in her entire life. Surely the name had to mean something or she would have forgotten it by now. 

Resolutely, Nat pulled on a pair of sandals and trudged out the door. She had two more days to clean out her office and be off campus. Despite the fiasco of Romania (whatever had happened there), she already had two more teaching offers and one offer from a private institute. Finding employment wouldn't be a problem but it irked her that she had no idea why she'd lost this position in the first place. 

It was time for some old-fashioned detective work. She was a scientist, after all, and logic had a place everywhere. It was time she did her own thinking beyond dead reptiles and mammals. 

This Charlie Weasley guy was going to get an earful when she found him. 

* * *

Charlie was having a very lousy day. He'd turned in the photographs and the camera but the Ministry wanted proof that he'd gotten all of them. The idea of a camera without film was more than any of them could handle and they were positive dragon pictures were going to be springing up all over the Muggle news at any moment. So here he was back at Sam Hill's condominium parking lot, waiting in the shadows again for the man to reappear. 

Three hours of waiting and there wasn't a sign of him. 

"Maybe Natalie got rid of him after all," Charlie murmured to himself and then grinned. She deserved better than that louse, that was for certain. 

Thinking of Natalie Greene made him feel guilty, knowing that he was an indirect reason for the loss of her job. Deciding to abandoned waiting on Hill, Charlie began to walk toward the bus stop to get transportation to the university in the hopes that she might be in her office for some reason. If he remembered right, she'd said something to Hill about having a week to clean out her office. With an office that messy, it was going to take her awhile. His chances of catching her were good. Besides, it would be a new meeting for her, so he could start it on the right foot this time. 

The bus trip to the university was spent creating an alter ego. She wouldn't recognize his name so he'd pretend to be a prospective employer...no, an old student of hers...no, she was his age. He couldn't be a peer in the science of paleontology so perhaps a perspective employer would be best. Or a representative of an employer...yes...that sounded better and would explain his lack of knowledge on the subject of dinosaurs. 

Pleased with his decision, even though he knew it wasn't very imaginative, Charlie walked into the Anthropology building and stopped at the receptionist, who's fingernails were still dagger-length and now a blinding shade of lime green. "Is Dr. Greene in?" he asked politely. 

"She's busy cleaning out her office. I'll call back and see if she's available." The receptionist sounded even less enthusiastic than the first time he'd met her. 

"Thank you. Tell her Charles Weasley is here to speak to her," Charlie said politely and sat down to wait. 

He didn't have to wait long. 

Natalie came down the corridor, a smile on her face. Charlie realized a few hours later that the smile should have tipped him off that something was afoot, but it didn't. 

"Mr. Weasley?" she said, holding out a slightly dusty hand. "Mr. Charles Weasley?" 

"Um, yes," Charlie said, standing up quickly and shaking her hand. He winced slightly when she squeezed hard. She was stronger than she looked, that was for certain. "I represent -" 

"The British government, I know. You visited here before, my receptionist said, but I'm afraid you must have talked with one of my colleagues, as I don't recall meeting you before. Won't you come this way?" 

He frowned. Something wasn't right, but there was no way that she could remember him and he'd listened to the receptionist tell Nat, er, Dr. Greene on the phone who he was just now. Had the receptionist mentioned his previous visit before after all? He groaned silently. How many people was he going to have to obliviate to get this thing resolved? Her office was much different this time around. Packing boxes and packing accessories were everywhere and most of the skulls, bones and statues of beast long since dead were already stored away. All that was left, it seemed, was her mountains of books and papers. 

He stood awkwardly as she went to sit on her desk. Charlie had a sudden flash of Professor McGonagall, the Transfigurations teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, in place of Natalie Green. It was obvious that Nat was very comfortable with intimidation techniques despite her absent-mindedness and lack of common sense. It had to be a teaching thing. 

"So, you're here why, Mr. Weasley?" she asked him pleasantly but with an edge of steel in her voice. 

He swallowed and tried regain his equilibrium. The glasses perched on her nose and the neat bun of her hair in contrast to her slim, tiny figure made her seem like a little girl playing grown up. She looked adorable. Mentally he shook himself, knowing that if he slipped up once more he was in more than a world of trouble. 

"Dr. Greene, I need to know where your fiance, Mr. Samuel Hill, can be located," he began, but stopped short when her eyes narrowed at him. 

"I see." She considered him for several long moments. It was all Charlie could do to not squirm where he stood. She finally reached over to her huge bag purse and pulled out a huge yellow envelope. "So these aren't what you're looking for?" 

She pulled out several sheets of stiff paper and flipped through them. She took one and held it up so he could see it. 

Charlie made a grab for them but she was too quick. Nat darted around to the other side of her desk. "Accio!" he cried, jerking his wand from his sleeve and pointing it at the photographs in her hand. She maintained a tight grip but he got the photographs...and her as well. The two of them landed in a heap on the floor of her office, papers of all kinds fluttering to the floor to mix with the photographs. 

Before he could say or do anything else, he felt her knee collide with his groin and he bit back a scream of pain. Nat shoved herself off of him, photographs still in hand and towered over him like an avenging angel. 

"I don't know exactly what's going on, Mister Weasley, but I do know that you're involved in getting me fired, along with possibly fraud, extortion, theft and harassment. That leaves you with a choice. You either tell me everything or I call university security, who in turn will contact the police department, who in turn will contact the FBI, who in turn will contact -" 

"Okay, okay," moaned Charlie, gingerly levering himself off the floor. "You win, and you're right. You deserve better than this. In my defense, I can only say I was under orders." 

Nat smirked. "That what all the peons say, buddy."


	4. Chapter 4

Natalie stared at Charlie in stunned disbelief. "You're a wizard."

He nodded and grinned. He couldn't help himself, she looked so danged cute staring at him like that, like she wasn't sure if he was dead serious or a candidate for St. Mungo's...not that she knew what St. Mungo's was anyway. 

"And you work with these..." she held up the photographs, "...dragons." 

"Yes," he confirmed with a nod. 

"Right." She didn't seem completely convinced but there was an element of resignation in her tone nonetheless. "And my idiot fiance happened to take pictures of your dragon while you were moving her and her, um, eggs to a new dragon colony." 

"Look, I know it seems hard to understand, not being someone who knew about dragons before all this," began Charlie but Nat interrupted him with a raised hand. 

"I'm a paleontologist, Mr. Weasley, and as far as I'm concerned you have just handed me the keys to the kingdom. Do you have _any_ idea what this means to the science of paleontology? Dragons have long been suspected of being dinosaurs that survived whatever cataclysm that destroyed the dinosaurs millions of years ago. Hell, the Loch Ness Monster is suspected of being a plesiosaur. Just imagine what will happen when dragons are proved to exist and -" 

"Wait a minute!" Charlie shouted over her in horror. "First of all, no one will know about this. That's why I'm here, to make sure that no one knows about this. Eight hundred years ago dragons were almost hunted to extinction. Only through some serious work have we managed to get decent populations back. The last thing we want are Muggle scientists crawling all over the place and bringing Muggle attention back to them." 

Nat immediately became indignant. "We 'Muggles', as you call those of us who don't wave sticks around in the air and say made up words, have species restoration and protection programs too, you know." 

"Yes, but can you guarantee they'll never be hunted, never be harmed?" Charlie challenged. "See the Bengal tiger if you want that answer." Nat's mouth opened then closed with a snap when she had no answer. "Look, they're a magical creature and, as such, fall under our jurisdiction. We can't have Muggles crawling all over the place because we can't protect you and us from these creatures. They're dangerous, Nat, and furthermore -" 

"Nat? Then we have met before!" she cried, punching the air triumphantly. 

"I erased your memory," he admitted. "Your's and Hill's." 

"I would kill you for that, but I have to know how to do it first. Instead, we're going to make a little deal." Nat gave him an unholy grin. "You're going to help me finish packing up my office and putting everything in storage." 

Charlie looked around, shrugged, and pulled his wand again. Nat took a step back, her blue eyes widening in alarm. "Waddiwasi!" he said and the papers and books immediately began packing themselves into the boxes. "It's also good for taking things out. I once watched a friend of mine pull a spit ball out of a blow gun that was aimed at him and instead it hit the guy trying to blow the wad at my friend." He shrugged as she gaped. "Now what?" 

Nat looked around at her packed office. "We, uh, we, uh, we put the stuff in storage and then we..." She gulped loudly, trying to gather her thoughts. "Then you're going to show me dragons." 

Charlie began to laugh. "No, really, what's next?" 

She frowned at him. "I'm going with you to see dragons. I want to know everything: habitat, family relations, eating and dietary habits, grooming, territorial behavior, everything. Once I see this, and get to remember it with no memory spells to make me forget it, then you'll get your photographic evidence." 

Charlie groaned. "I can't do that, Nat. I can't. They'll fire me, they'll kill me, and I won't go into the trouble my family will suffer through." 

Nat frowned. "They'll blame your family for your deeds? What kind of organization is this Ministry of yours? I don't remember the British Government being this...archaic." 

"Well, technically, it's not the British government as you know it," hedged Charlie. 

Nat's eyes narrowed. "Meaning?" 

"Wizards and witches have their own governments." Charlie heaved a big sigh. "It takes too long to explain and I pretty much slept my way through my History of Magic class at school so, we'll just skip over to the more -" 

"There's a History of Magic class at your school?" asked Nat eagerly. "A magical school for magical people, you mean? Where? How fascinating! My brother will go nuts!" 

"Hey!" Charlie had to yell again. "What part of "secret society" are you missing here?" 

Nat frowned. "Oh, yes, I forgot about that. Damn it." Charlie gave a sigh of relief. "Okay, you show me the dragons ... is a month long enough? ... and I'll hand over the photographs." She beamed a bright smile at him when he gave a reluctant nod and flung herself at him for a big hug. "Charles Weasley, you are a breath of fresh air!" 

Charlie wrapped his arms around her to support her as she hugged him tightly and a waft of her flowery perfume tickled his nose. He swallowed hard, feeling the attraction for her as never before. This was going to go so wrong so fast it was not even amusing. Merlin help him, though, he was going to agree. Anything to see her smile at him, anything to make her hug him again. 

"Okay, you win, dragons for photographs, but we do this my way." Nat nodded enthusiastically. "And call me Charlie." 

She hugged him again with a squeal of delight. "Let's get this stuff moved," she told him happily, "and then I'll pack for Romania." 

* * *

"What do you mean we're not going to Romania?"

Charlie sidled a gaze at her as he walked through the crowded London street. "Well, we will, eventually, but you aren't going without proper protection. My way or not at all, Nat, remember?" 

Nat grumbled a bit, hoisting her heavy shoulder pack higher up on her back. After the third winding block, she whined, "Have you ever heard of the Underground?" 

"I'm claustrophobic," he told her, stopping and staring around intently. No one was paying them the slightest bit of attention. "This way." He opened the door of a nameless business and held it for her as she stepped in. As her eyes grew accustomed to the dim light, she noticed that the formerly noisy place had grown a bit quieter. 

"Charlie Weasley! Have a drink!" Nat gaped at the scruffy man behind the bar, who grinned at her, revealing a decided lack of dental hygeine. He was also dressed very similarly to the other people in the tavern. Nat was forcefully given to believe she might have stepped back in time, so closely did their clothing resemble clothing worn two or three hundred years ago. 

"No thanks, Tom. Got business in Diagon Alley. You happen to know what the current exchange rate for Muggle money is?" Charlie was busy making his way across to the back of the tavern. 

"High, as usual," replied the barkeep. "You know how them goblins are." The man stared in unabashed curiosity at Nat, who had decided that following Charlie might be the wiser course of action. No one was looking particularly friendly to her. "She a Muggle?" 

Charlie didn't spare Nat a glance beyond making sure she was following him. "Yes, special project for the Ministry. Don't worry, she's good." 

Tom the bartender grunted and gave her a polite nod when she offered a fleeting, wan smile. The rest of the tavern immediately lost interest in her and turned back to whatever they were doing. Nat continued to follow Charlie out the back way and into a small cramped space. He tapped a few times on the brick wall in front of them and Nat felt her jaw dropped. 

The bricks were moving! Not only were they moving but they were opening into a street crowded with people and shops of the like she hadn't seen since she watched A Christmas Carol on television at Christmas. Deciding not to ponder on the bricks, which had formed a large doorway, Nat stepped through to the street, her mouth hanging open and her eyes wider than her mouth. 

"This is Diagon Alley," Charlie was explaining, looking around him with an amused smile. He looked back at Nat and his smile dropped. She looked a bit too overawed. Not wanting to explain to anyone why he had a fainting Muggle on his hands, he grabbed her shoulders and spun her to face him. "Don't faint on me, please. Just think of it as -" 

"Magical London," she whispered, closing her eyes as if to memorize what she'd seen. "I can't believe I'm seeing something like this. It's like out of Dickens or Grimm's Fairy Tales." 

"It's not fantasy," he told her with a laugh. "It's all real and if you think this is fantastical, wait until you see Gringotts Bank." 

Nat rushed over to a window and peered at the display. "That's beautiful!" she exclaimed, pointing at a shimmering blue dress robe. 

"It's a dress robe, for special occasions," Charlie told her, grabbing her hand and pulling her away. "Very expensive and we're not here for dress robes." 

"I know, I know," Nat said in a long suffering tone. "We covered this on the plane, remember?" 

"I suffered the plane, you can suffer another lecture," he told her. He frowned at the memory of the long flight from America. Nat had balked at taking a port key. She had insisted on the airplane. He had resolved somewhere over the Atlantic when the airplane had encountered turbulance that he was never going to fly on anything but a broom again. "We're here for supplies for you and then dragons. After that pictures and we part company never to see each other again." 

"Sans you waving your wand and making my memory disappear," Nat added, just in case he'd forgotten. 

"Naturally." The idea of never seeing Nat again sobered Charlie up considerably but he cheered again when Nat exclaimed over every little thing in every shop window they passed on the way to Gringotts Bank. He tried to ignore the tingling feeling of his hand holding hers but after awhile resigned himself to the sensation. He'd heard his mother and father talk about being in love and he had a bad feeling he was coming down with a case of the "Natalies". 

Pushing the thought from his mind, he hauled Nat up the crooked stairs and into the crooked white building that was Gringotts. Nat's attention was immediately diverted from the crowded thoroughfare to the bank as they stepped through the doors. Charlie strode down the huge aisle, looking for the goblin in charge of Muggle Money Exchange. He found the line and waited patiently while two men, one in a Muggle business suit and one wizard in pin striped robes, haggled with the goblin over the rates. 

"Outrageous!" muttered the Muggle as they concluded their business and walked away from the window. "Yesterday it was three Sickles lower!" 

"Inflation knows no rules with goblins, Marcus, you know that," responded the wizard with a toothy grin. 

"Excuse me," Natalie said suddenly, halting their progress back toward the door. "Can you tell me what rate you received?" 

"Five pounds, 50 pence equalling one Galleon," huffed Marcus indignantly. "Yesterday it was five pounds, 32 pence!" 

"Thank you," Nat replied politely and then turned to Charlie. "What's wizard money equaled too?" 

Charlie blinked at her. "Seventeen Sickles to the Galleon and 493 Knuts to the Sickle. Why?" 

"And how often do you have American Muggles in here?" she asked. 

"I would imagine American Muggles are pretty rare in here," Charlie replied, still confused. 

She seemed to do some rapid calculations and then nodded to herself. She marched up to the goblin, who was eyeing her in distaste. 

"May I help you?" it said in a sneering, gravelly tone. 

"Yes, I need to exchange some Muggle money for wizard please? I'm sorry, I only have American dollars." Nat smiled graciously at the goblin, who blinked disconcertedly. 

"One moment please." The goblin disappeared from the high perch behind the counter and Charlie and Nat heard him walking hurriedly off to the left. About three minutes later, two sets of feet could be heard approaching and the goblin's head popped back up over the counter with another one accompanying him. 

"According to our paperwork, madam, the exchange rate a few years ago between the British pound and the American dollar was approximately one dollar and fifty-nine cents per one pound. Assuming that the American economy has not undergone a monumental economic boom or depression, it should only have risen a few," the goblin checked his sheet, "pennies. Therefore, the exchange rate would be -" 

"You didn't hear about our rise in economy?" Nat looked at Charlie, shocked. Charlie, having no idea what she up to, merely stared back. "I'm surprised. You should keep a closer watch on the Muggle economy abroad. You remember the old saying that America's streets are paved with gold?" The goblins nodded uncertainly. "Well, let me tell you, Los Angeles is giving serious consideration to doing that to Rodeo Drive." 

The goblins stared at her, nonplussed. "Rodeo Drive," the more senior of the two repeated dumbly. "I don't understand." 

"We had a huge market boom," Natalie explained. "People are living better than we have ever before! That's why I've come over to Britain. I'm thinking about buying up some businesses, the British economy is ridiculously low in comparison." She gave them a winning smile. 

"What is the exchange rate, if you please?" The senior goblin picked up a quill, dipped it in an inkwell and poised it over his sheet of parchment. He had a suspicious look on his face and Nat immediately realised that she'd better not inflate the American dollar too much. Not that she knew what too much was anyway. 

Crossing her fingers behind her back, she said confidently, "Why, its almost two dollars and fifty cents to one British pound." The goblins blinked owlishly at her. She leaned forward conspiratorially, "You should see what we're doing to the Japanese yen. We're ahead of them for the first time in ages!" 

The goblin's quill moved with rapid-fire scratchings. Nat tried to ignore the fact that the goblin wasn't holding the quill as it wrote. 

"Hmmm." The goblins consulted each other in strange gibberish and after five minutes of arguing, pointing at parchment and waving their hands in the air they turned to her. "We can offer ten Galleons, 10 Sickles and 200 Knuts to the American Dollar." 

Nat pretended to think about it. "Now this is using the same exchange rate you offered the gentlemen who just left, correct? I believe it was five pounds per one Galleon or something like that?" 

The goblins considered her a long moment, both of their mouths compressed into identical thin lines. They nodded resolutely, as if expecting her to argue. 

Nat considered again and then nodded. "Deal." Nat handed over her American dollars and received a huge bag in return. 

As they walked out of Gringotts, Charlie began to laugh. "I thought you were this scatter-brained, absent-minded professor?" 

Nat collapsed on the steps of the bank as soon they exited. Her face was pale and she was shaking. "I think I did that right. Math was never my strong suit and the economy was even worse. That's why I study dead animals. No economy." After a long pause while Charlie laughed at her, she asked, "What the heck were those things?" 

"Goblins and if they find out you lied to them, there's going to be trouble." 

"I didn't lie," Nat protested and then had the grace to look shame-faced. "Okay, well I did just a little but ... you aren't going to get into trouble if its ever found out, will you? 

He frowned. "I doubt it, but you never know. My brother Bill works for Gringotts so he might get harassed a bit." Charlie noticed Nat's stricken expression. "Hey, don't worry, Bill can more than take care of himself." 

Nat mumbled something. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that." 

"I said, I wonder what business I can buy with a few hundred dollars in magical funny money in Britain?" 

Charlie hooted with laughter. "You're either too clever for your own good or one gutsy woman." He shook his head in wonder. 

Natalie ignored him and turned her attention back to Diagon Alley. "Now, about that dress robe?" 


	5. Chapter 5

"Are you mad?"

Charlie could only shrug.

"How are we going to explain this to the Department of Magical Creatures if you get caught? And the Department of Magical Cooperation...for Merlin's sake, Charlie, your dad works for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office!"

Charlie sighed and could only offer a wry grin at Marty's incredulous floating head in the fireplace at The Leaky Cauldron. Natalie had gone beyond the nauseating green color at the sight of a floating disembodied head to its current mottled red tinge.

"You do realize that if she gets hurt, there's going to be hell to pay?"

"I realize I don't have magical powers, er, Marty," Nat defended hotly, "but I assure you I have quite a background in reptiles and mammals and furthermore -"

"Lady, you study dead reptiles and mammals, hardly the same thing," snapped back Marty, turning his disembodied head in Nat's direction.

"Alligators and crocodiles are dinosaur descendents. So are cockroaches and mosquitos. I assure you, I won't be a problem. I'll follow every rule you lay down and if you say jump, I'll ask how high as I do so." Nat glared at the ludicrous apparition in front of her.

Marty's head sighed and turned pleadingly to Charlie once more. "Don't ask this of me. Please?"

"We have to have those photographs and this is the only way we're going to get them. Just keep your mouth shut and tell the guys it's cool. No one will ever know," wheedled Charlie.

"I take it she hid them in some secret location that she'll reveal after this month is over?" the head inquired sarcastically.

"I watch Bond flicks. I know better than to reveal secret locations or make them obvious!" Nat began her rebuttal, but Charlie raised a hand to silence them both. He didn't think he could stand another Sean Connery reference, having gotten them most of the afternoon. Did this Connery man have an acting role he couldn't play?

"Enough! Marty, we'll be there tomorrow evening. Nat, shut up. We're all going to go to bed and just live with the arrangement. We picked up all the supplies and gear that Natalie is going to need, Marty, and I plan on keeping a close watch on her the whole time. Trust me, eh? It'll be fine."

Marty didn't look convinced but conceded nonetheless. "All right, I'll see you then." The flames lost its ghostly mirage.

"The nerve!" huffed Nat, all of her academic sensitivities insulted. "I have a bloody PhD and tons of field work behind me, one of the youngest paleontologists in the field and he has the nerve to question my credibility!"

Charlie couldn't help but grin. She was cute when she was indignant. "It's nothing against you personally, Nat," he told her, pouring her a cup of tea with a flick of his wand. "It's just that these things could get us all in a lot of trouble, if not outright fired."

"I understand but he could have a little faith in your judgement!"

Charlie raised his eyebrows. "We Weasleys aren't exactly well-known for having solid heads on our shoulders. To call us dreamers and optimists would be kind."

Nat turned on him, still breathing fire. "There is not a thing wrong with being an optimist or having dreams, Charlie," she informed him imperiously. "Some of the world's greatest thinkers and minds were accused of being dreamers or optimists."

Charlie laughed. "You're really upset by this?" She was getting more irresistable the more outraged she became. He fought the urge to hold her tightly in his arms and kiss her senseless.

"Yes!" Nat waved her hands violently as she paced and spoke. "What would have happened if Copernicus did not have the idea of looking through a telescope, dreaming of what the stars were? What if Da Vinci didn't dream and create his models and works of art? What if the explorers like Magellan or Marco Polo didn't dream of what was just beyond their civilization's ideas of culture and borders? We'd be short on silk and Chinese spices and have a difficult time making overland trips to Hong Kong for them, that's where we'd be?"

Charlie blinked. "What?" Nat's mouth opened but Charlie waved her quiet, not sure he could take another disjointed Muggle history lesson. "Never mind." Besides he had other things in mind. Like kissing her. "You know what?"

"What?" Nat was still too busy being outraged to notice Charlie was standing in front of her.

"You are absolutely adorable when you're angry."

Nat froze as Charlie's mouth brushed hers. Her blue eyes locked onto his and as his lips rubbed hers tantalizingly, he winked. She gasped and he took advantage of her open mouth, exploring the silky inside with his tongue. Nat felt herself melting, eyes closing and leaning into his embrace. Kissing Sam had never felt like this.

Charlie's head was swimming with elation. His thoughts had been centered on kissing her off and on all day (and a bit before that too, truthfully) as he'd watched her wide-eyed wonder as they shopped up and down Diagon Alley and he couldn't believe his good fortune. Not only was she allowing him to kiss her but she was kissing him back! Charlie's own eyes drifted close and they went from gentle kisses to ones of a more passionate nature.

They got a bit wild, Nat pulling his head down and he slanted it to make their mouths fit tighter, sealing them. In the back of both their minds was the thought that this seemed so right, that they seemed to fit so perfect.

Nat unconsciously began tugging on his shirt, desperate to feel the muscles underneath the material. Honed by the nature of his physical occupation, Charlie's body was nicely sculpted. He wasn't hugely muscular, like some guy at a gym or in the wrestling shows, but it was nice to Nat's soft hands. She felt safe in his arms, not rushed or pushed.

Charlie, for his part, didn't think women came this soft, this so perfectly rounded. Natalie curved in all the right places. There was a bit of pinchable skin here and there, but it only added to her overall perfectness. She had well-developed muscles from her field work and he delighted in tracing his rough hands over the slight curves of her musculature.

"AHEM!"

Nat and Charlie were brought rudely back to their surroundings by a throat clearing, startled to find that Nat was almost on top of the table and Charlie was bent over her, his mouth on her neck, making enchanting little moans issue from her throat. The two of them looked over at the open door to find a tall man with a lanky frame and a shock of straw-colored hair glaring at them.

"Tom wants me to tell ye that yer rooms are ready, or should we make that a single?"

Both Nat and Charlie flushed a bright red and, after righting their clothing in a hurry, rushed from the room with muttered thanks. Charlie escorted Nat to her room, where they exchanged another languid kiss. Nat smiled up at him.

"Do you want to come in?" she asked shyly, pushing open the door invitingly, hoping she didn't sound desperate.

Charlie smiled back. "No." He chuckled at her crestfallen expression. "My mother taught me how to treat a lady. Another kiss good-night, fair maiden, and then off to hunt the dragons."

The kiss made both their toes curl and had Natalie dreaming of Charlie in gleaming silver armor defending her from a fierce black dragon with smoke billowing from its flaring nostrils when she finally drifted into sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

Nat wasn't sure what she'd been expecting. Maybe camping out in rugged Eastern European terrain, complete with tents, campfires, backpacks, flying brooms (which made her nervous because even she knew that wasn't normal broom behavior), water canteens, and canned rations. What she got was a tent with spacious and luxurious innards that resembled a hotel than a tent, food cooked in the tent's kitchen brought from the freezer or refrigerator, and no drizzle leaking in from a shabby tent roof during the major downpour currently raging outside.

"This isn't right," she informed Charlie, who was pouring everyone a cup of tea. The five men of Charlie's team merely continued to stare at her as if she were some strange beast that had sprouted from the earth. 

"Why's that, Nat?" asked Charlie, setting the tea pot down. 

She looked around at the tent and grinned sheepishly. "Something about the Hilton in a tent just bothers me." 

"What a Hilton?" asked Tybalt. Reggie, looking better from his dragon-eaten incident, was staring at Natalie as if she were the most fascinating object on the planet. Frankly it was making her a bit nervous. 

"A hotel, kind of upscale if you're middle class," she explained before shoving an entire scone into her mouth to keep from laughing at their perplexed expressions. 

"There are different types of hotels for different types of people?" Marty sounded outraged. At least Nat thought the one speaking was Marty. He looked vaguely like the guy who'd been rather wary of her accompanying the team in the first place. 

Mouth full, she only nodded. 

"Muggles," Tybalt shook his head in wonder. "They do the wierdest things." 

"Says the guy that waves a small stick to make things happen," she giggled after swallowing her scone. The five men ignored the comment. "Speaking of wierd things, what's the game plan tomorrow?" 

There was a sudden silence. The men looked at each other uncomfortably until Charlie finally spoke up. "You're, um, actually staying in the tent, Nat." 

Nat's tone was frosty. "Excuse me? We had a deal!" 

"And we have representatives from the Romanian Ministry of Magic crawling all over this place tomorrow," Charlie explained, "and if they see a Muggle, an unauthorized one at that, we are screwed six ways from Sunday." 

Nat thought about it. "So teach me to wave a wand, ride a broom and you won't have to worry about it." 

"You can't do magic!" sputtered Tybalt. "You're a Muggle!" 

"Did I say "do magic"? I said wave a wand. I'll wave it expertly in the air on the broom and they'll never know." Nat gave Tybalt an indignant sniff. 

Charlie gave her a beseeching look. "It's just for tomorrow, Nat, and then we're on the reserve where they won't go for fear of being eaten." Charlie winced when both Reggie and Tybalt winced. "Sorry, Reg." 

"S'okay. I'm kinda getting used to the trauma of being eaten actually." Reggie downed his tea in a gulp and turned red from the heat. 

Nat was distracted. "You were eaten?" she asked him in excited horror. 

"Yes, and if you don't mind, I'd rather not talk about the experience to anyone except my doctor." Reggie gave her a wan smile. "Let's just say it wasn't pleasant." 

Nat just stared at him, fascinated. Charlie and Marty both choked down chuckles at the sight. Reggie was getting more and more uncomfortable with Nat's gaze. Finally he got up, excused himself and fled. 

"All right, fine then, I'll be a good girl and stay in the tent but I want the grand tour first thing the next morning!" Nat informed the remaining dragon caretakers imperiously. 

Charlie snapped to attention and saluted her. "Yes, Ma'am!" 

"Shut up and pour me another cup, Weasley," Marty said. 

"Yessir!" 

* * *

It was two in the afternoon and Nat was bored, bored, bored. She'd done the editing read through of her paper for the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Twice. Eager to see if her latest theory regarding the size of nasal cavaties and how smell was utilized by the large carnivores would have bearing in studying dragons, Nat kept peeking out to see if Charlie and his co-workers were around. One or more was usually wandering the small campsite with at least one Romanian wizard talking ninety miles an hour at them.

She got lucky at four-twenty. There wasn't a wizard in sight. Desperate to get out of the tent even for a brief moment, Nat darted out and went behind the tent, lunging into the woods beyond for a walk. The walk was invigorating and, marking her trail and noting landmarks as she'd been taught in the Girl Scouts, Nat plunged deeper into the woods. 

Charlie realized later that perhaps he should have told her they were relatively close to the dragon reservation but then speculated that it wouldn't have made any difference and she'd have been an even bigger paid. Needless to say, it undoubtedly would have ended up the same. 

Dark was coming on and Nat realized she really should have paid more attention in Girl Scouts. Worried that now she was in more trouble than just Charlie being irate at her wandering off, she turned around, hoping she could get close enough to camp that her marks wouldn't be needed. It took her a bit to realize that she was going around in circles and had been for sometime, hitting the same markings over and over. Frustrated and starting to get a little scared, Nat sat down on a funky looking tree trunk that had fallen to ruminate over her situation and come up with a plan. Admittedly, plans weren't her strong suit but it wasn't like she had much choice in the matter. It was either come up with a plan or wait to be eaten by wild animals in the middle of the Romanian wilderness. 

The tree trunk moved. Terrified, Nat leaped to her feet and headed for the nearest patch of treeless area she could find, which was nothing to brag about. Certain she was in the middle of a quake in Romania, Nat took deep breaths and tried not to panic. 

The panic part turned into sheer terror when she realized it wasn't an earthquake. The quake turned into shudders like footsteps. With dawning horror, Nat realized she'd sat on the tail of a dragon. Said dragon, huge, horny and brown, was now peering down at her from a great height, what was certainly a toothy grin leering at her. 

The urge to pass out on the spot was strong but somehow she managed to keep her wits. Deciding now was as good a time as any to test her theory, Nat slowly bent down and picked up a huge stick. Heaving it as hard as she good to her right, Nat held her breath to see if the dragon's eyes followed the object as it crashed through the trees. It didn't; it merely blinked at her and shifted its weight. 

The sound or movement didn't distract the dragon in the least. 'So much for the theory presented to the audiences of 'Jurassic Park',' Nat thought to herself. She'd almost have rather the dragon went snarling for the branch. Then she'd have known to not move until the dragon went away or help arrived. 

Chewing on the inside of her lip, Nat considered her options. She had nothing that smelled to distract the dragon with, unless she counted her sweaty self, which was not an option. She had no way to defend herself if the dragon suddenly attacked. In short, she was dinner. 

Nat had no idea how long she and the dragon stood there, staring at each other, but finally, bored with her, the dragon turned and lumbered away, leaving behind crashed trees and a hyperventilating Natalie. 

* * *

Charlie was in a panic. She wasn't in any of the tents. No one had seen her all day. There were wierd markings on some of the trees behind her tent that led deep into the woods at the edge of the reservation. The nearest group of dragons were a nesting pair, which meant they would not be friendly, even if Horntails were so inclined to be so to begin with. He had a sinking feeling she was an evening snack. 

Taking his broom, Charlie soared low over the area of her markings. The woods were heavy and the height was good to find dragons, but not so great for humans. He took a chance and sank lower, darting the upper canopy carefully but quickly. A short distance away, Charlie could see a male Horntail lumbering off and prayed to whoever listened to wizard prayers that the Horntail hadn't just had a snack. 

A scream rent the air and Charlie turned his broom quickly east. He dove down, registering slightly that the Horntail had been moving away from that direction. The scream, he absently noted, was also female. 

"CHARLES WEASLEY!" Charlie grinned to himself and sank even lower as he approached the irate screams. "CHARLIE! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?" 

He was about to shout back but her next words stole his breath. "HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO BE MY KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR IF YOU AREN'T AROUND TO BE KNIGHT-LIKE?" 

He crashed into a tree.


	7. Chapter 7

Natalie, standing innocently (well sort of) in the middle of a empty, treeless spot, screaming her head off after confronting the closest thing to a dinosaur since she smashed a cockroach in skanky roadside petrol station in London calling her brother three days earlier, screamed yet again when Charles Weasley came sliding down a tree trunk about twenty yards away like he was Wile E. Coyote off the Bugs Bunny cartoons. She took yet another deep breath and, for the hell of it, screamed again, this time in a more excited manner. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her over to Charlie and launched herself in his arms.

"I'm so glad you're here!" she informed him in delight. "I do believe I have just confronted what easily could be a descendent of Patagosaurus. And," she tacked on dramatically, ignoring Charlie's pained expression, "I do believe the choana cavity is what the dragon uses mostly to hunt, because it certainly ignores anything its eyes see!" 

"Riiiiight." Charlie peeled her off of him. "What did you just say, in plain English?" 

Nat grinned. "That my paper for the Journal of Vertebrae Paleontology was right on target by saying that carnivorous dinosaurs used their sense of smell, not their eyes, to hunt." 

Charlie just shook his head. "Actually dragons scent the same way snakes do, using their tongues, except the Chinese Fireball, which uses its tongue for just about everything from mating practices to taste." 

Nat grimaced. "That's a disgusting yet fascinating tidbit of information." She gave him a hopeful look. "When will I be seeing a Chinese Fireball?" 

"Never in Romania," Charlie assured her. "You realize you just missed confronting a male Horntail, right? It could .... have ...." Charlie's voice faded as Nat's face got more animated. "You didn't miss confronting him, did you?" 

"It had to be the most fascinating piece of scientific field research I have ever done. The documentation alone on what I witnessed would be enough to -" 

"Probably land you in a mental institution," Charlie finished for her. "We're going back to the tents and having a long discussion about what the term 'stay put' means in England, because apparently its different than in America." 

"But!" 

"No buts, Nat," Charlie shouted at her suddenly. "You obviously don't realize the danger you were in! That dragon could have eaten you, chewed you up and we'd have no clue what happened to you, unless peices of you came out the other end! Do you have any idea how lucky you were?" 

Nat shrugged. "Sure I do, but it's all part of the job, right?" 

Charlie smacked his forehead. "Reggie was lucky, Nat, okay? The dragon only swallowed him whole and the acid in her stomach hadn't secreted to where he was lodged inside her. Do you understand what I'm saying? Reggie would not be with us if she'd decided he was too big to swallow." 

"I'm smaller than Reggie," Natalie frowned in concentration, "though I may outweigh him by about ten pounds." 

"NATALIE! You could have left me!" Charlie shouted over her. 

Natalie's eyes widened in shock a moment before Charlie's mouth swooped over hers, claiming a tense kiss. The kiss broke and they both took a deep breath. "I love it when you rescue me," Nat said stupidly. "Please. Do it more often." 

"I, uh," Charlie mumbled just as stupidly. "We got to figure out how we're going to get you back." 

"Can't we use the broom?" 

Charlie held up the handle, which was missing bristles. "That would be a 'no'." 

"Well," Nat motioned back where she'd run from when she sat down on the dragon's tail. "How good are you at reading markings, because I apparently can't read my own trail." 

"Is that what those crazy scratches in the trees are for?" asked Charlie, amused now. 

Nat looked disgruntled. "I'll have you know that I learned that in the Girl Scouts!" 

"Riiiight, having no idea what the Girl Scouts are, I'll assume that its something Muggle girls normally find useful but is useless to you." Charlie grinned when Nat became more outraged. "Face it, Nat, you aren't the most logical thing on the planet." 

Nat sniffed as she began leading him back to where she'd seen her last marker. "I'll have you know that I am an expert on the obturator prong in most species as well as the choana. My research alone into the sclerotic plate was essential in the development of -" 

"Okay you know dead lizards." 

"Not all dinosaurs are lizards, Charlie," Nat snapped, as she shoved her way around a large bush she didn't remember passing but was she she had to have. "Many dinosaurs were warm-blooded mammals or even birds." 

"Fascinating, but where's your markings again?" Charlie smirked when Nat stopped to look around in irritation. 

"I'm sure I came this way." 

"Riiiight." 

"Will you stop saying that?" Nat stamped her foot and the trees moved. Gaping at the ground, she stamped again and the trees moved again. 

"Oh man," Charlie groaned, grabbing her hand and pulling her behind him. "Come on!" 

"What is it?" Nat tried to keep up but Charlie's legs were longer than hers. 

"Off hand I'd say a descendent of a Pagodasauron or whatever. I knew the female couldn't be too far from the male but I didn't see her from the air. Run, damnit, Nat, RUN!" 

"Are the females worse?" she asked around a panting breath. 

"They are nesting pair," Charlie told her with gritted teeth. "Take a wild guess. Now run!" 

Nat ran. 

* * *

She'd lost her mate. This was not a good thing. From the scent of him, he'd left in a state of agitation. Something else that wasn't good. Whatever was scaring males away had to be gotten rid of. She scented the air, caught the smell of the disturbance and lumbered after it. It took a moment for her to realize what the smell was and then she was just incensed.

Humans. 

Or if Nat had the nerve to argue with a dragon over technical terms, homo sapiens. 

She hated humans. They were always messing about with the nests, driving dragons from excellent breeding and hunting grounds and causing no end of mischief with hatchlings. She'd had to put up with humans her entire lifespan (so far 600 years) and she was fed up with it. These humans would know her wrath. 

The humans in question had no doubt that they would know her wrath but she had to catch them first. Charlie was pulling Nat behind him and when Nat stumbled and fell, crying out in pain, he scooped her up in his arms and kept running. A male with a mate was a dangerous thing, but a female who was in season was an all out terrible thing. To escape a female in season once she'd caught your scent required the help of a lot of stunning spells and Charlie had only one wand. He and Nat's only hope was that Marty had sent out a search party and from the air could see the trouble he and Nat were in. He prayed Nat's luck was still good. After all, she'd faced down the male. 

Nat's luck had run out. 

"Charlie, please, can't we hide somewhere?" 

"She'll find us," Charlie panted, stopping for a moment to set her down and catch his breath. "And we are in a lot of trouble, Nat. Unless Marty and the boys find us, we very well may not make it out of this. Females are quicker and much meaner." 

Nat gulped. "I'm sorry." 

"Worry about that later," Charlie told her and scooped her in his arms again. He smacked a kiss on her forehead and began to run toward the setting sun. "Camp's this way, I hope." 

Charlie had no idea how long they ran but it seemed like it wasn't any time at all before a large black female Horntail bore down on them, roaring in rage and snorting flame. From years as a Quidditch player, as well as having multiple siblings (especially the twins) and his subsequent training as a dragon keeper, Charlie reacted quickly, jumping away, tucking into a roll and curling his body around Natalie as he did so. He rolled to his feet, jerked Nat to her own and gave her a shove. 

"Hobble that way!" he shouted pointing into the dense forest. "Find someplace to hole up and don't make a peep!" 

Natalie, terrified, did as she was told and hobbled almost at a run where he pointed. Charlie jerked his wand from his robes, thankful it wasn't broken and started hexing everything that came in front of him to distract the clearing incensed female Hungarian Horntail. The tail swished at him and he ducked and rolled, the spikes catching his robes. He heard them rip as he ducked behind a tree that was promptly aflame. 

Shrubs into gnomes. Nope. 

Bushes into Horntail eggs. Nope. 

Leaves into birds. Nope. 

Stunning Spell. Bounced. 

Nothing was working and Charlie began to feel panic creeping in. There was no way he was going to get out this... Charlie's green eyes widened and he grinned as he ran the perimeter of the dragon, keeping an eye on her madly swishing tail and out of range of her fire breath. "ACCIO BROOM!" he shouted and waited. 

Nope. 

"STUPEFY!" The word, spoken by about seven different voices, was music to Charlie's ears. The Horntail froze in place and then landed with a graceful, yet loud, THUD! 

"Hey Weasley, you're on fire!" came a shout and Charlie immediately dropped to the ground and began to roll, putting out the flames. His back was burning and the pain from putting out the flame was excruciating. There was a terrified scream and just before Charlie lost consciousness, Nat's face swam before him, crying his name, her hand reaching out to brush his cheek. He was out before he felt her touch.


	8. Chapter 8

Nat paced impatiently inside her assigned tent for someone to come tell her of Charlie's condition. When he'd passed out, Nat had been horrified that perhaps he was dying from his burns. 'And its all my fault,' her brain raged.

Suddenly in that moment, dragons and dinosaurs weren't so very important when compared to the idea that she might lose Charlie. Even now, Nat realized with some guilt, if it had been Samuel Hill injured in the course of some escapade, she would have only been annoyed with him for inconveniencing her. It had to be a rough gig to be partnered with Natalie Green.

Sitting on the small sofa, Nat began to cry. She'd spent her whole life avoiding emotional attachments, following her parents' lead, shunning such a thing as extra useless baggage that would interfere with her intellectual goals. Her mind scrolled through her achievements, ticking them off one by one next to the goals she'd set for herself at the age of twelve. She'd succeeded in them all but only until now did she see it...and what it cost her.

She also saw what she had done to herself and the people around her. Nat couldn't think of one person whom she could honestly call a friend. No one that she could implicitly rely on, who could make her laugh and who seemed to care about her.

Except Charlie.  
There wasn't a time she could think where she spontaneously did anything, laughed at something or had a good time that wasn't forced or half-hearted. It never occured to her that it was something she was missing in her life.

Except with Charlie.  
No friends, a cold family, no lover...'but what about Charlie?' her brain inserted mutinously.

"Charlie," she murmured dejectedly into the hands covering her face.

"Yeah?" Charlie's baritone slid over her nervous system like a shot of whiskey, warm and sensual, and Nat's head bounced up, eyes widening in surprise. He was lounging against the doorframe, still looking a bit singed but definitely less damaged, and more importantly, alive.

"Oh my God!" Nat sobbed as she ran to him. She pulled his head down to her, kissing him frantically. It seemed as if he was stunned a moment but he quickly caught on. The kiss deepened and Nat's brain shut down, her body moving on instinctual autopilot.

* * *

When Charlie came to in the medical tent to find both Marty and Tybalt hovering over him, looking exhausted, Charlie knew that he was going to be okay. Both wizards were trained as emergency medi-wizards and knew what they were about. Undoubtedly Charlie had been brought quickly to the camp to be healed. Tybalt was capping some bottles of potions while Marty finished bandaging Charlie's shoulder. Charlie knew it might have been worse and prepared for the lecture.

All he got was "No wonder you were an excellent Quidditch player, with reflexes like that," from Marty. From Tybalt he got, "You can be my knight in shining armor anytime, Weasley."

Charlie gave a relieved laugh. "Speaking of which, how's my damsel in distress?"

"Distressed," said Tybalt crisply and disapprovingly.

Marty shook his head. "You hit the ground and she went insane, screaming and crying. She doesn't do too well under pressure apparently."

Charlie though about her confrontation with the male Horntail and related it to the other two wizards, adding, "Actually I don't think she's ever had someone to care about before so she wigged out."

Marty and Tybalt just looked at each other and then at him. "I meant as a friend," Charlie added hastily.

"Maybe," Marty replied," but she's more than that, Charlie. You like this Muggle girl, a lot. Like her enough to get you, her, us and your family in a whole lot of trouble by bringing her here when you could get those photos a thousand other ways." Charlie stared at him in surprise. Marty leaned down into his face. "If you let her go, so help me, Weasley, I'll duel you til you drop. And considering the only thing that stopped me from being an auror was the personality test, I can pull it off."

So Charlie staggered to his feet and got back to Nat's tent, intent on giving her a chewing out for running off like that and then a huge hug and a nice long kiss. He was relieved to find her unhurt but was startled by her moroseness. Whatever introspection she was doing involved him for she murmured his name.

"Yeah?" he asked, more to make it known he was there than anything else.

Her head came up from its dejected position and she leaped to her feet. She reached him at a run, saying, "Oh my God," right before she pulled him into a kiss. A passionate, desperate kiss that startled him. He quickly caught on and deepened the contact. All thoughts of rebuke scattered from his brain; all that mattered was Natalie in his arms, more than happy to see him.

They kissed for several long minutes before Charlie bent down and swung her into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck, making soft noises of protest when their lips briefly lost contact. As he walked toward the bedroom, she began unbuttoning his shirt, pushing it away as her hands roamed his chest.

Charlie set her down gently on the bed, following her down and stretching out on top of her. Nat pulled the shirt from his pants and finished unbuttoning it, threading her fingers through crisp, fiery gold chest hair. He shrugged the shirt off and delved back into her arms.

Nat lost what little coherent thought she had left when she felt his lips on her neck and Charlie's brain completely went blank when Nat started to make soft little moans as he nibbled down her neck. The rest of the night was a passionate, demanding dream.

* * *

"Hey, Charlie, you in there?" Reggie's voice was distant and hesitant. "Wake up!"

"Mmm," came a contented sigh from the region of his right side. Smalls hands caressed his chest and then there was a giggle.

Roused more by the giggle than the continued shouting from Reggie, Charlie opened one eye and peered into Nat's face. She was still giggling. "What's so funny?"

She only looked toward the headboard of the bed and her giggling turned into a snort of laughter. Charlie craned his neck to see and burst into laughter himself. Their clothing was hanging not only all over the headboard but also on the bedside table. A shoe had busted the lamp.

"Did we do that?" she finally asked, now looking faintly amazed.

He hugged her and was getting ready to reply when Reggie shouted at them again, obviously from the living room area of Nat's tent. "We got an irate and stunned female dragon to move, so will you come on?"

"Give me five minutes," Charlie hollered back. To Nat, he smiled contentedly and whispered, "Get dressed quick, you'll want to see this." Nat nodded and slid out of bed, enchantingly nude.

She didn't face him as they dressed but he could tell she was blushing. While Charlie had little modesty (with the large family he had, especially with the twins, modesty and privacy both had been in short supply) he found Nat's morning after shyness wonderful. Before they left the bedroom, he grabbed her hand and pulled her toward him. "No regrets?"

"No," Nat answered shyly.

"Do it again tonight?" he asked with a roguish grin. Nat blushed to the roots of her hair but smiled and nodded. "Speak," he commanded playfully. "You being quiet is making me nervous."

"Go on then," Nat laughed, giving him a shove toward the door. "Relocate the female dragon and we'll discuss my studying tonight."

Charlie laughed as well and followed her out the bedroom door.

In a brief discussion with Charlie's coworkers, it was agreed that while they relocated the female dragon a safe distance from camp, Natalie should stay in her tent, in case more official wizards stopped by due to the accident report filed for Charlie's injuries. Plus Nat knew her stunt hadn't endeared her to the rest of the wizards and she was trying to show them she wasn't a complete idiot and could be reasonable.

Nat did, however, verify with them that it was okay to use her Muggle equipment, like her laptop computer and cellular phone. So leaving Natalie happily typing away, Charlie left with his companions to move a still stunned female Hungarian Horntail.

* * *

"Melissa Greene speaking." It was a chirpy voice that had never ceased irritating Natalie everytime she called her sister-in-law. Nat had never understood why Jeremy married Melissa. She was so cheerful and sugary sweet, it'd been irritating. That and he doted on her and praised Melissa to his family every chance he got. The most enthusiastic response he got was from his mother when she said, "That's nice, dear." Love had never been a priority in the Greene household. Intellect was everything and near as anyone could tell, Melissa had none.

Now though Natalie thought she understood why Jeremy married Melissa.

"Hello, Melissa," Nat began hesitantly.

"Oh there you are! We've been so worried. Sam calls us twice a day looking for you." Melissa's tone had gone from chirpy to lukewarm inviting, but there was undercurrent of worry there all the same. Melissa knew that Natalie never understood their marriage and the two women had always been cool to one another.

"I have more serious problems than Samual Hill," Nat answered. "Melissa, help me, I think I'm in love."

The silence over the phone was deafening. Melissa finally managed an answer. "You're what?"

"In love and I think I like it. Help me."

Melissa started laughing. "Well, that's a relief! I was beginning to think Jeremy was the only human in the bunch. Maybe the rest of you were automatons or Vulcans or something."

"What does the Roman blacksmith god have to do with anything?" asked Natalie in confusion.

Melissa's voice was dry as she responded, "Watch Star Trek sometime, girlfriend, you really need a life."

"I'll make a note of that, now about this love thing," Nat began, scribbling on a sheet of notebook paper _Star Trek - watch soon - what is Vulcan?_

"What about it? When do we meet him? He's not an abuser is he? Does your brother have to rough him up to make it clear we won't let you be roughed up?" Melissa's barrage of questions kept Nat busy for about five minutes before her sister-in-law ran out of steam. "Well, if he's such an upstanding citizen, what's the problem? Don't you want to be in love?"

Nat sighed heavily. "I honestly don't know. I mean, I like it, Melissa, but I don't know what to do with it."

Melissa sighed this time. "You don't do anything with it, Nat. You don't study it to death, you don't analyze it and you don't critique it. You enjoy the hell out of it and him, hopefully for the rest of your life. Do you mean you were with Sam Hill for how many years and never once loved him?"

Nat's nose wrinkled. "Love Samuel Hill? No, I think Mom was right, he was more habit than anything."

"Yes," Melissa answered dryly again, "like an comfortable pair of jeans or old slippers. Comfy and cozy, that's Sam."

"I could have done worse," Nat said defensively.

"Only if you married Jeffrey Dahmer. Listen, Nat, to Sam you were two things, a meal ticket and a prestigious name he could latch onto. Your family is well-respected in many intellectual circles and none of you were exactly poor either. He could easily cash in on all of that and none of you would have been the wiser or cared to boot."

"You make us sound -" Nat stopped.

"Blind as frickin' bats, yes, I do because you are and now you realize it. The man was a leech, Nat. I like the sound of this Charlie guy though. Description, details, I want it all. Got some pictures yet?"

Before Natalie was even aware of it, the two women were chattering like two teenage girlfriends, talking about boys, marriage, and dreams of the heart. When they hung up 45 minutes later, Nat was content and secure enough to phone Sam Hill to give him what for.

"Samuel Hill," came his terse voice.

"Sam, will you stop calling my family? We're through, I thought I made that clear." Nat put all her disapproval and distaste into that one statement, hoping he'd get the hint.

He did but didn't care, he had a weapon. "Well, see, Natty, it's like this, I got something that will be of extreme value to you. If not to you, then I'm sure there'll be someone more pressworthy that'd like to take a look at them. I found some photos on my spare laptop that I had analyzed. Seems there are dragons in Romania. Real. Live. Dragons. Now something about this whole situation is ringing some major bells with me and I know it has to do with you. So let's make a deal."

Nat began to shake with fury as the "deal" was outlined to her implicitly. There was no way out and no bargaining. Nat was being blackmailed and so was her family's good reputations. She was going to have to go back to America.

'Damn you, Sam Hill, damn you,' Natalie thought as she turned the phone off. 'Charlie was not going to like this.'

She frowned. 'But what Charlie didn't know, wouldn't hurt him.'

She gathered her things together, shoving them in the cases. Due to the fact that Nat couldn't ride a broom and Charlie couldn't apparate more than just himself, Natalie had driven a rented car and parked it as close as she could to the campsite location without attracting Romanian wizarding officials. An hour hike to the car and she'd be off to Budapest and the airport.

She hastily scribbled a note, explaining things.

_Charlie -_

_There was an emergency and I had to return to America. I will be back in about a week, I promise. This has nothing to do with last night. In fact, I think I'm in love with you so don't go proving to me that love's the crock I've always thought it was and leave me, okay? When I get back, the photos are yours, all of them, no arguments, deal fulfilled. I think I've seen all the dragons I honestly want to. If something goes wrong, I'm leaving you my spare cellphone to call me. The number is 443-555-6587 and I'll leave it on. To work the phone press the button that says End for about ten seconds and the phone will turn on. Then punch in the number and then hit the Talk button. It will then dial to me. After we're done talking, punch the End button again to save on the batteries._

_I love you._

_Natalie_

She laid it on the table, grabbed the car keys and her suitcase and headed out the door.


	9. Chapter 9

She was moved. She was happily beating the crap out of her mate. With any luck, the two of them wouldn't wander so close to the reservation line again.

Charlie was rapidly thinking luck was on his side. No wizarding officials had shown up to lecture them about safety. An owl delivered letter merely stating that the report had been filed and that they were pleased that Mr. Charles Weasley was not permanently maimed. The relocation of the female had been relatively easy, as if she'd known she was being removed from the vicinity of insane humans. Today wasn't so bad.

Charlie grinned. Tonight was going to be even better. It looked like a storm coming in and storms always made him...energetic.

He'd thought about Nat all day. She was smart, occasionally funny (though she didn't know it half the time), beautiful, talented, and oh so damned sexy when she moaned. Charlie quickened his pace to her tent at the recollection of those moans. He wondered if food was really necessary this evening or if they could skip to dessert.

"Hey Nat!" he called out eagerly as he shoved through the tent flap. A breeze blew in with him, ruffling his hair. "How hungry are you?" His cat ate the canary grin faded when there was no sign of Nat anywhere. Not only of Nat, but her computer, portable phone and paperwork. A quick look in the bedroom brought up the fact that there were no clothes of the female type anywhere.

Charlie looked at the table by the sofa. No keys. The keys to the automobile they'd rented to get her here was gone.

She'd run away.

It was as if someone had punched him in the gut. All the air blew straight out of him with a huff and he collapsed on the sofa, staring at the floor in disbelief. Questions pummeled his mind, causing his head to hurt. Was she scared of him? Was he that bad in bed? Didn't she love him? She acted like she loved him. Was she one of those women that like to use and run? That wasn't Natalie Greene, Charlie immediately told himself. Too much thinking ahead was required for that attitude. So she had to be running scared. But why? He didn't think he'd hurt her last night, though he admitted that they were a bit rough. She'd acted like she'd liked it, though.

'Acted,' the voice in his mind echoed. 'Maybe she didn't like it, Weasley.'

'But why didn't she say something?' he responded back.

'Maybe she thought you'd just magic her into liking it?' the voice replied back.

'That's ridiculous!' he thought in return, angry now.

The evidence was clear though. No note, no hint or clue this morning of her intention, nothing. Nat was gone. The question now was what was he going to do now? Go after her? Leave her alone? What? He deserved an explanation but...

His eye caught something on the far table by the kitchen. One of Nat's portable phones! Charlie lunged for it, scrambling around hoping for a clue as to why it got left behind, but there was nothing. No note.

Perplexed now beyond belief, Charlie's brain went into overdrive. Scenarios from kidnapping by DeathEaters to Nat just leaving it behind bombarded his mind. Needing some help to clarify the situation, Charlie headed back outside to where his co-workers and friends were gathering around a fire for some flame-broiled steaks and roasted corn cobs.

"Heck, Charlie, we figured you and the Muggle would be getting lofty by now," chortled Marty jokingly.

Tybalt looked up and noticed Charlie's perplexed expression. "What's up, Weasley?"

"Whatcha got there, Charlie?" asked Reggie, reaching for the cellular telephone. "It's one of those Muggle cellular phones! What'd she give you one of those for?"

"She's gone." Charlie's voice was flat and the other three gaped at him in surprise.

"You're kidding! She looked as satisfied as...um, never mind." Tybalt stopped his sentence at Reggie's dirty look.

"No note?" Charlie shook his head. "No hint this morning she was taking off?" Charlie again shook his head negatively. "Well, I'm damned."

"Yeah, ye are, so gimme th' contraption and watch a master at work." Amos Entwistle took the cellphone from Reggie and pushed the End button just long enough for the phone to turn on. A burst of chimes indicated it was powered up. "What's the gel's last name again?" he mumbled, pushing buttons and making it beep at an alarming rate.

"Greene," Charlie answered, watching Amos with the rest of them in abject fascination.

"No Natalie Greene here but there's a Jeremy Greene and a Melissa Greene, and these must be her folks. They go by their initials with the letters d.r. in from of them." Amos punched a button, held the phone to his ear, grunted and tossed it at Charlie. "Start talking when you hear someone say hello."

Charlie gaped at the phone and faintly heard, "Melissa Greene speaking."

He put the receiver to his ear and spoke. "Um, yes, you wouldn't happen to know how to get ahold of Dr. Natalie Greene would you?"

"Who is this?" The voice on the other end was instantly suspicious.

"Um, Charles Weasley. I'm a friend of Natalie's and she left her phone with me and I-"

"Oh so you're Charlie Weasley! Hey, Jeremy, Charlie Weasley is on the phone!" Charlie frowned, not sure how to follow that. "Is Nat there?"

"Um, no, that's what I was hoping you could help me with. We got back, me and my co-workers and she was gone."

"Gone? Gone where?" Melissa Greene sounded puzzled. "Aren't you guys in the middle of Romania?"

Charlie sighed, wondering how much Nat had told this woman. "Yes, we are, but do you know where she's at?"

"Well, if she's not there, then no. I just talked to her this morning. She needed a girl to chat with, we chatted, I told her that her scummy ex had been calling us and nagging about her whereabouts, we hung up and all's been quiet on the western front since then."

Charlie understood about a third of what Melissa was saying and quickly deciphered the rest. "Sam Hill is the ex, right?"

"That he is, now that you're in the picture." Melissa's voice was coy and Charlie blushed even though it was obvious the woman on the other end couldn't see him.

"What's the western front?"

"Turn of phrase, limey, now listen, if you've lost my sister, so help me -," a male voice irately spat out.

"Damn it, Jeremy, give me the phone back!" Melissa's voice quickly replaced the irate male voice. "Sorry, idiot husband of mine and Nat's idiot brother. Formerly considered the only human being in the family. I would suggest you hunt down Samuel Hill. She probably called him to give him a peice of her mind, not that he'd follow it anyway, and something screwy happened. Nat's gullible; she'll fall for anything. If I were you I'd head back for America."

'Damn,' thought Charlie but he replied, "Thanks, Melissa, and tell Jeremy I plan on taking care of his sister."

Melissa sounded amused. "I'll be sure to do that, after I bean him over the head with a pot from an Incan temple. Bye!"

The phone clicked in his ear and Charlie pulled it away. "Now what?"

"I'd say go after her if what I interpret from you're end of the conversation is correct," replied Tybalt.

"No I meant about the phone."

Amos only sighed, grabbed the phone, punched the End button until the power went off and tossed it back to Charlie. "You boys need an education," the old man muttered and went back to turning the steaks over the open-flame.


	10. Chapter 10

By the time Nat touched down at her hometown airport she was breathing as much fire as the female Horntail had been. The longer her flight and the more delays she encountered the more enraged she became. The foremost thought on her mind was that the moment she got her hands around Samuel Hill's neck she was going to squeeze...real...hard.

On the trans-Atlantic flight, Nat managed to get ahold of her father and discussed a plan of action regarding any blackmail from Sam. Her father, of course, had been outraged and, after a ten minute diatribe of allowing such scum into his home every Christmas and Thanksgiving, the two of them decided to find out exactly what Sam wanted before going further. Nat had hedged around the material and her father, slightly dimwitted in the common sense department like herself, didn't comment on the lack of information that was being blackmailed. Nat figured he assumed it had something to do with some possible questionable legal activities on a dig, which sometimes happened.

As Nat exited the plane onto the platform she spotted Sam right away and it took extreme effort to school her features into stony coolness. Sam approached her with a wide smile and gently took her in flight bag. "Did you have the rest of your luggage?" he asked solicitously. Nat shook her head. "Then we'll have some dinner. I'm sure you're famished. Airplane food is never any good no matter how much they try. How about some Italian?"

"I'd rather get this nonsense over with, Hill," Nat responded cooly.

Sam raised an eyebrow at her tone. "There's no need to be rude, Natty," he smiled congenially. "After all, as your fiance I insist on being treated with some respect. Just because I'm not a formerly well-respected figure in my field is not a reason to get all snobbish."

'Formerly?' thought Nat in surprise. There was no way Sam could discredit her on his word that she wanted the photos verified as real or fake. And if they were verified as fake, it would only cement her as being someone who discovered a "lost species", not a fruitcake. No one in the field of palentology would listen much to the ravings of Samuel Hill, especially if she denounced him as a jealous ex-fiance eager to get revenge. He had no credentials in the field and it was her word against his, which made it no contest.

Unless...

"You spoke with the police didn't you," she said flatly.

"Now, Natty, I wouldn't do that!" Sam protested. "I spoke instead with a friend of mine at the FBI and he assured me he was going to look into your dismissal from the university." 

Nat inwardly quaked. "Now how about that Italian?"

"Fine," she spat angrily, "but I'm getting the most expensive thing on the menu and you're paying!"

"As a gentleman should," Sam agreed smugly.

"You are far from being a gentleman, Sam, so can the act. You're a blackmailer, plain and simple, and you're going to get yours."

Sam only continued to grin smugly as they exited the terminal and headed toward the airport parking lot.

* * *

"Sounds like trouble for her, big brother," commented a freckle-faced red headed boy who looked uncannily like the boy next to him.

"Yes, sir," said the mirror image, "a whole lot of trouble. Blackmail, uh? He should leave that sort of thing to the professionals."

"Shut up you two and let's follow them." Charlie put the newspaper down on the chair next to him and stood up. His two brothers, Fred and George Weasley, followed suit. They were stockily built and not as tall as their brother but Charlie didn't bring them along for their physical build. He brought them along because they were sneaky, underhanded and devious. The twins were also highly intelligent and clever; their joke products were borderline spy accessories, ranging from listening devices called Extendable Ears to candies that had a variety of effects.

"She's cute though," snickered George.

"Nice swish to the hips too," added Fred.

Their older brother merely glared at them. "Shutting up now," the twins chorused with evil grins.

The three Weasley brothers followed Natalie and Samuel to the sports car that was actually Nat's. As the car pulled out of the parking spot, Charlie pointed his wand at the bumper and muttered, "Sectatoris." He pulled out a road map of the city and pointed his wand at it next. "Suppeditis."

A little red dot at the edge of the airplane symbol on the map began to move north east. The twins grinned. "So that's how you do that?" Fred asked eagerly.

"That's must be how the Marauder's Map was charmed!" exclaimed George.

"The what?" asked Charlie suspiciously.

"Nothing, Charlie," George hastily answered. "Nothing to concern yourself with."

"Anymore," Fred added under his breath.

"All right. When the dot stops, that's where they are. We'll apparate there, since you both can do it now, and see what happens next."

Charlie's plan worked as it should and soon the three of them were standing outside a very posh Italian restaurant. There was a small cafe across the street with outdoor benches so the brothers Weasley had a seat and a soda to wait for Nat and Samuel Hill to emerge. As they waited the discussed the plan.

"Okay, you're going to grab Natalie and we're going to snare this Hill guy, right?" clarified George with an evil grin on his face.

"Keep it low key. We don't want the Muggle police called. I'm in enough hot water as it is. It's a good thing Dad's got that buddy in the American ministry of magic who's also in the Muggle Federal Bureau of Intimidation or whatever they call it," sighed Charlie. "Now Fred, what I want you to do is make sure that Hill can't shout or give an alarm. George, keep him physically under control. Nat will drive back to her place, I suppose, and we'll have a nice little chat with Mr. Hill once there. I have to get those photos -"

"That was a quick dinner," commented George, staring across the street. Charlie turned in time to see Natalie storm out of the restaurant.

"You are despicable, Samuel Hill, and not only is the answer no, it's hell no!"

"Now Natty -" started Hill with an amiable smile on his face.

"Don't call me that! You know I hate being called that!" shouted Nat, her hands clenched into fists. Charlie hoped she decked him. Not only would it serve the man right but it would be easier on him. Who knows what George would have in mind for keeping Hill physically restrained.

To Charlie's pleasure, Nat did take a swing at the same time that George whispered, "Petrificus Totalus." The effect was Hill stiffening just a breath after Nat's fist connected with his chin and he fell over onto the pavement. Fred gave a low whoop and the three Weasley brothers charged across the street.

Charlie put his hands on Nat's shoulders and turned her to him. Her stunned face caused him to grin somewhat. "Don't worry, we can undo it," he reassured her.

"I thought I did that!" Nat began to laugh almost hysterically. "He was blackmailing me!" she continued her laughter turning into righteous anger.

"Fred, George, pick him up. We'll put him in the car." For the benefit of the small crowd gathering. "We'll get him to a hospital. He's just bruised a bit, I'm sure." Several people were glaring at the board stiff man and giving Natalie sympathetic looks, obviously stemming from overhearing her blackmail comments.

Nat was still shaking and Charlie hoped that she could drive but he was reassured as she smoothly pulled out the parking space and lot to head toward the street. "Where to?" she   
asked calmly, "because I'm damned if he's going to a hospital."

"Your place?" suggested Charlie. This couldn't be working out better.

"All right," Nat agreed amiably. "While we're there, I'll give you my copies of the photos too. I'm sick of this and just want it to be over."

The words impacted Charlie like a dragon tail hitting his solar plexis. The air whooshed out of him as a heavy sigh. Both of his brothers looked at each and raised their eyebrows. 

Nat missed the reaction, still muttering under her breath. "Nice peaceful life studying dead animals, but no, I get the psychopathic nutjob of a former fiance who wants money and prestige, chased by dragons and good-looking wizards instead..."

The twins grinned at the phrase "good looking wizards". "So you're saying we're good looking?" prompted George. Charlie turned around to glare at his younger sibling but the twin ignored him.

"Not as good as Charlie but you two should grow up to be fine looking young men," answered Natalie absently, still centered on her recent lot in life.

The extremely cramped car pulled into Natalie's condominium complex's parking lot and Nat turned the engine off. "Okay, drag his sorry butt into my place and we'll get this over with."

It was a bit of a struggle getting Hill into the elevator but they managed it. Once the door closed behind them in Nat's condo, Charlie reversed the body binding spell. Sam stiffly stood up and warily watched the three wizards and his irate victim as he maneuvered to Natalie's leather sofa. "So now what?" he asked.

"Easy," Charlie told him. "You're going to drink this and tell us everything you know. Then we're going to wipe your memory, again, but this time with a better memory altering spell then things will be all hunky dory for you again. Well as good as scum like you get anyway."

Fred held up a little black vial that made Sam blanche.

"I want him to remember I hate his guts and that I never want to see him again," clarified Nat, her arms folded akimbo.

"Done," agreed Charlie with a decisive nod.

"I don't want him poisoned either, what is that?" Nat reached for the vial but Fred pocketed it again.

"Its called Veritaserum, a truth serum. He won't be able to resist it." Charlie smirked at Hill, who only glared at him.

"I can defeat truth serums," boasted Hill, "and you can't make me drink it."

"Oh yes we can!" chorused the twins with nasty smiles on their faces. "As the middle brothers of seven siblings," began Fred.

"And the most evil," added George.

"We can get you to do just about anything we want," finished Fred, leering at the sitting Muggle.

"Anything," echoed George with a wicked cackle.

"No!" panicked Sam and he jumped up to attempt an escape. Nat tripped him and he sprawled face first on the floor. With one twin sitting on him and holding his nose and another twin prying his mouth open to pour the potion in, it was only a matter of moments before Samuel Hill was complacent as a baby and easily answering every question Charlie put to him. Within five minutes, Charlie knew where every scrap of evidence Samuel Hill had on the dragons were and within twenty minutes had them in his possession.

An hour later the Weasleys and Nat were alone in her condo, Sam's memory erased by American ministry wizards and he long since departed in a hazy, dejected confusion. Charlie wanted to say something to her, but with the twins eagerly listening in, he didn't have the nerve. "I'll send you the rest of your things that you left in Romania," he said lamely.

"Okay," Nat answered, looking puzzled. They were standing at the door, the twins bouncing around the outside hallway waiting for the elevator down. "Is that all then?"

Charlie remembered her words and shrugged fatalistically. "I guess so. Bye Nat."

Nat's expression was hurt and confused but Charlie ignored it. "Okay, then," she whispered. "Bye."

The door closed in his face and he turned away. "Let's go home, shall we?"

"But what about -" began Fred, looking back to Nat's closed door as the elevator door opened.

"We'll apparate to the American ministry trans-Atlantic floo fireplace and go home from there," Charlie interrupted as he stepped into the elevator. The twins looked at each other in confusion.

When the elevator doors opened on the ground level, it was empty.


	11. Chapter 11

It had easily been the month from hell. While not pleased with the time it had taken him to get the photographs and other accumulated evidence, the Ministry of Magic was willing to overlook the time spent considering the amount of information Charlie turned in. There was no mention of Natalie Greene's presence in Romania or Charlie's contact with the American ministry of magic. Despite all of this Charlie still felt depressed and irritable. He'd spent a couple of days with his family (returning the twins to the bosom of the Weasley home) and then gratefully slunk back to Romania, thinking that perhaps in the boondocks of nowhere he'd find some peace and quiet. Instead he was interrogated unmercifully by his co-workers about what happened and where Natalie was now.

All in all, the month from hell.

Nat's month was just as difficult. Her brother and sister-in-law had arrived from Peru to help her pack. Much to Natalie's disgust, her mother had a friend who had connections with a paleontological society through the British Museum in London which gladly offered her a position doing field research and an occasional lecture. With her brother and sister-in-law helping her, Natalie was soon ready for her international transfer to England. Just the mere idea of living in England, knowing that occasionally Charlie would be there was just depressing as it could possibly be.

Nat wondered if she could remember how to get into that wizarding part of the city and maybe find a way to communicate with him. She was afraid however to do so. He'd left so abruptly and without even a word of their night together. Nat wondered if she'd experienced her first one night stand but couldn't bear the thought that it might have been, so she mentally ignored the fact it happened. Unfortunately her heart had other ideas.

Melissa had inquired once on the whereabouts of Charlie and after Nat informed her that Charlie had left, Melissa never inquired again. Jeremy too had asked about Charlie and, after receiving the same answer, scowled for two days and muttered angrily under his breath. No one had heard or seen anything of Samuel Hill and for that, at least, Nat was thankful.

Nat had kept something from Charlie as well. One photograph of the dragon remained in her possession. She had not been able to hand it over and she doubted seriously whether or not Charlie had even noticed that one was missing. If all wizards were as clueless as he was regarding non-magical things, the odds were good she had her one souvenir of the only adventure she was ever liable to have.

And she lost her cellphone too. The cellphone she'd left in the tent in Romania was either still there or in Charlie's possession. She was thankful she left the battery charger, though she doubted Charlie had the slightest idea how to use it. Maybe if he decided that she was worth his time and energy again, he'd figure it out.

The mere idea of not being good enough for Charles Weasley made Nat angry. In a fit of anger, she slammed an armful of framed photographs of various trips to paleontological digs she'd made on the floor, the glass and frames breaking with a resounding crack. Melissa had rushed in from the kitchen, eyes huge. She'd taken one look at Nat's stony features and the broken picture frames and, without a word, helped clean up the mess. Jeremy looking down from the doorway of the spare bedroom Nat used as her study, compressed his lips and said nothing either.

Within a week, Nat was looking for a place to live in London and within two weeks was mostly unpacked and ready to start her new job and new life. "Think of it as starting over, Natters," Jeremy had said, using the nickname he'd given her when they were kids. "You have this one chance to make a new life, a new location, a new job, everything new. Your reputation is still intact and you've got that research mostly completed for your next paper. You're good to go!"

Nat had smiled at her brother, knowing he meant well. "I know and I'll try, I promise."

Melissa had giggled. "Do or do not, there is no try," she quoted.

"Huh?" chorused Jeremy and Natalie at the same time.

Melissa rolled her eyes. "I really need to subject you guys to a science fiction movie marathon. You are both just pathetic."

Nat had laughed with them but in all honesty her heart just wasn't in it.

* * *

Fall had set in, bringing with it cooler and wetter weather. Nat remembered why she'd hated England in the fall and winter and always managed to find some nice dinosaur dig in Argentina or Arizona during those months when she was finishing up university.

Charlie was home for a month himself, taking a needed vacation and to attempt to find a job within England. It was time he started working first hand for Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix instead of remotely in Romania.

Jeremy and Melissa had given up trying to cheer up Nat. The Weasleys were fed up with Charlie's long face and trigger temper. What to do about the situation was beyond what either party could figure out to do. Bill, another Weasley sibling, had traveled to America in an attempt to locate Natalie, only to discover she'd moved and not left a forwarding address. All he could discover was that she had moved to London. London was a big place. Jeremy discovered that there was no Charles Weasley working anywhere for the British government and therefore had no idea if Nat just go her information mixed up (always possible) or that the man was using fake credentials (which suited Jeremy's purposes better). All attempts to end the estrangement ended up a bust.

By chance, however, another member of the Order of the Phoenix was snooping around the British Museum and saw a posting on a lecture by Dr. Natalie Greene on the olifactory senses of carnivorous dinosaurs and remembered the name from eavesdropping on a lecture from Molly Weasley to her son. Admittedly, Professor Severus Snape informed Bill, it wasn't hard to do, considering Molly had been shouting at the top of her lungs. Bill had agreed and grudgingly thanked Professor Snape for the information. Unperturbed at the idea of having done a Weasley a good turn, Snape had departed to do whatever it was former dark wizards did on an afternoon off from noisy students.

Bill, refraining from telling Charlie, or any other Weasley, what he was up to, headed for the British Museum, paid the small entry fee to the lecture and made himself comfortable. The lecture, while not exactly scintillating to Bill's way of thinking, was interesting and he had to admit Charlie had good taste in women. Dr. Natalie Greene was a very attractive woman; intelligent as well, considering the topic of her lecture.

After the lecture, Bill summoned his nerve and approached her, waiting patiently as she answered questions from various students and other attendees. He lost her in the crowd, but caught sight of her as she headed out the door. Changing his mind about confronting her in the museum, it would be too public for such a personal topic, Bill opted to follow her home and confront her there. It was his hope that the entire thing was just a huge misunderstanding, easily rectified with a nice long chat.

Nat was oblivious to her red-haired stalker, though she'd noticed the man in the lecture hall. Anyone with red hair made her stomach lurch lately and the man listening to her speech had a slight resemblance to Charlie Weasley. A short bus ride from the museum to her large flat consisted of her staring morosely out the window at the greying sky. It looked like snow.

She failed to notice her tag-along as she marched up the steps of her building and pushed the key into the lock. "Dr. Greene?" She turned toward the voice and came face to face with the roguishly handsome redhead from her lecture.

"Yes?" she answered warily, key still in the lock.

"My name is Bill Weasley. My brother is Charlie Weasley? May I speak to you in private? I think there may have been a misunderstanding between the two of you and I'd like to see it resolved." Bill Weasley spoke with confidence and assurance. For a moment, Nat knew a glimmer of hope but she squashed it ruthlessly.

"I'm afraid there was no misunderstanding, Mr. Weasley," she began.

"Bill," he corrected with a very familiar grin.

Nat ignored him. "Your brother was quite clear on his feelings and I intend to respect them. I suggest you do the same."

Bill seemed undeterred. "What if I told you that he thought you were the one who lacked feelings for him?"

Nat turned to face Charlie's brother. That hope she had squashed came back with a triumphant thump of her heart. "I left a note in my tent in Romania, Mr. Weasley, that quite clearly explained what I was doing and my feelings for him. Apparently it wasn't sufficient." She turned away but was stopped when Bill replied.

"He found your telephone but not a note. He said that you were glad to be rid of him. I believe he quoted you as saying that you were ready to be done with the whole photograph situation and couldn't wait for the whole thing to be over."

"Well?" demanded Nat in exassperation. "Wasn't he glad to have the damned situation resolved? He didn't lose his job, did he?" she asked in sudden worry.

Bill suppressed a triumphant grin. She still cared, no matter how much she thought she'd been wronged. "No, he's still gainfully employed but looking for a position closer to home. Seems Romania doesn't agree with him so much anymore." Nat pursed her lips. "I tried, Dr. Greene. You are both miserable as can be, but apparently you don't want to become unmiserable, so I'll leave you to your ridiculous self-imposed and pointless misery. Good day." He nodded briskly to her and walked away, counting to ten as he did so. He got to seven before she called him back.

"Fine, Mr. Weasley. Tell him I want my phone back. Is he in England?"

"He is," affirmed Bill, not turning around.

"Tell him to come here at three o'clock tomorrow afternoon to return my phone."

Bill gave her a cat-ate-the-canary grin over his shoulder. "I'll do that."

* * *

"You did WHAT?"

Bill grinned.

"She told you to tell me WHAT?"

Bill only shrugged this time but still continued to grin.

"Well she'll get her damned telephone back if she needs it so badly!" raged Charlie.

Bill remained silent but the rest of the Weasley clan was watching Charlie in wide-eyed astonishment. Charlie rarely lost his temper to this degree and it was always a sight to warily behold.

"Oh and she told me that you should have been glad that the whole situation was over with as well and was quite puzzled when she thought you weren't relieved you were no longer in jeopardy with your job about the photographs."

That icing on the cake made Charlie speechless for about three minutes, long enough for the family to clear the kitchen area and batten down the hatches for the next explosion.  
Bill smirked as he hurried outside with the twins. Sometimes being big brother was more fun than was legal.


	12. Chapter 12

At two-thirty the next afternoon Nat was a wreck. She couldn't believe she'd thrown down that gauntlet to Charlie's brother. That had to be the biggest bonehead move she'd ever made, after dating Sam Hill for all those years. Seeing Charlie, hearing Charlie's voice, and knowing that she'd never be with him again would be the ultimate agony. Nat decided she was a masochist; she deserved whatever pain was inflicted on her that afternoon.

Promptly at three o'clock the door bell chimed pleasantly and, taking a deep calming breath, Nat opened the door to reveal Charles Weasley. He was dressed in neat attire, not too flashy or overly elegant. 'Casual and uncaring of my opinion,' thought Nat morosely.

"Here's your damned phone!" Charlie shoved the phone into her hands and then stood in the doorway, his hands shoved into his pockets, staring at her with a strange expression on his face that Nat could only describe as hungry.

"Um, thanks. Where's the battery charger?" 'STUPID NATALIE!' she screamed at herself.

Charlie looked confused. "The what?"

"Never mind. I can buy another. They aren't that expensive." Nat looked down at the carpeted floor and swallowed.

"I just wanted to say-" they both began at the same time and then stopped, staring at each other in shock.

"No, you first." Again in unison.

Charlie blew a stray strand of red hair out of his face in irritation. "Nat," he began as Nat said, "Charlie." They stopped again.

"Ah screw it," Charlie muttered and grabbed her hand. He jerked her forward and their lips met. The kiss was long and involved and when their lips parted, both were breathing hard. "I kinda hoped you'd have that reaction."

"Oh?" asked Nat in a breathy tone. Her mind wasn't concerned with complete sentences at the moment.

"I just want to ask one question and we'll go from there, okay?" Charlie's green eyes darkened a bit.

Natalie nodded. "Okay."

"Are you still in love with me?"

She chewed her bottom lip a moment, wondering if she should lay bare her heart for him to trample on. Deciding to go for broke, as Melissa would have charmingly put it, Nat took a deep breath and answered, "Yes, I do, Charlie."

His face split into a huge smile and he suddenly seemed to relax. He shoved her backwards and followed her into the flat, slamming the door behind him. "Good, because, y'know, before I take you home to meet the family, we're going to have a discussion."

Nat blinked owlishly at him. "Discussion?"

Charlie grinned. "Yeah. Y'know." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "A discussion."

Nat colored slightly but smiled herself. "Oh! That discussion."

Charlie laughed. "Show me that paradise you call the bedroom, Nat." He leaned over and whispered in her ear. She blushed again, but led the way anyway.

* * *

"So this is the woman you've been foaming at the mouth about?" Nat wasn't sure which one spoke but it was definitely one of the twins. She hoped she wasn't required to remember names, because it just wasn't going to happen.

"Shut up, George," Charlie said good-naturedly, punching his younger brother in the chest lightly.

"Did you see that, Mum?" complained George. "Charlie just hit me!"

"I didn't!" protested Charlie, winking at Nat.

"Don't have children, my dear," Mrs. Weasley told Natalie, ignoring her squabbling sons. "Or if you do, avoid sons. They aren't worth the effort half the time."

All five of her sons who were present at the dinner table gave their mother open-mouthed and horrified looks. Ginny, the sister with the name that Nat could remember without much trouble, only speared a pork chop from one of her brother's plates and began cutting it up. Apparently, this was something that Ginny heard often, or had figured out for herself.

Nat wasn't sure what the whole dinner was about. She was a bit fuzzy on the details. The Weasley family was staying in London at a concealed wizard house that wasn't theirs for some secret purpose. One son, Percy if she recalled the name correctly, was not staying with them though he was living in London. Charlie had only said not to talk about Percy. Apparently Percy was the black sheep of the family or something. There were other wizards and witches at the table as well but again names were eluding her.

One witch was Hermione, a name that Natalie had always thought was charmingly old-fashioned. She was friends with the youngest son...named...Ryan, or Ron or something like that. The other witch, besides Mrs. Weasley and Ginny, went by her last name only but Nat would be damned if she could remember what it was.

Mr. Weasley was still at work at the Ministry of Magic. There were two other wizards at the table as well. One seemed to own the rather creepy residence, was dark-haired and used to be fairly handsome before time and something else made him a bit morose-looking. The other wizard was brown eyed and haired with rather non-descript and exhausted features. The two appeared to be long-time friends, Sirius and Remus. Their names were easy enough to remember for someone deeply involved in history, even if it was prehistory.

Nat had been spirited secretly into this strange house, blindfolded until she was inside. Once there she'd been introduced to Charlie's family and the added hanger-ons. What exactly they were all doing in London seemed to be hush-hush and frankly, Nat was sure she didn't want to know. She was brought from her reverie by a question from the man called Remus.

"So Charlie, did you get the position in the Department of Magical Creatures?"

Charlie shook his head as he finished his bite of bread. "No, but after speaking with Dumbledore, I think I should stay abroad. He wants more international supporters for the Order. I'll be a good liaison." Mrs. Weasley looked fretfull but said nothing. "Don't worry, Mum, I can take care of myself."

"Yes, dear," she said noncommitally. Charlie rolled his eyes in Nat's direction.

"So you're heading back to Romania then?" clarified Bill, giving Natalie a significant look. He didn't need to give her the prompting; she'd interpreted Charlie's comment well enough on her own. She didn't know what all of the words Charlie said meant but she did know that he'd be leaving London, and her, again.

"Yes," Charlie nodded. He glanced casually at Natalie as he added, "Y'know, we've actually found quite a few dinosaur bones here and there around the dragon reservations. We never paid them much mind, merely reported their existence to the Department of Prehistoric Animals, but you know how they are; if it isn't a magical animal, they aren't all that interested."

He had Nat's undivided attention. "Dinosaur bones? Do you know what kind?"

Charlie shook his head. "No. They all look the same to me." Nat ground her teeth. "Too bad there's no field paleontologists around that can direct field research, privately of course, in that direction. With the cooperation that Minister Fudge has started with the Muggle Prime Minister when you escaped, Sirius, it should be easy enough to get a Muggle and Wizard field team together."

Nat's eyes shone. "Yes it would and I know just the, um, Muggles who'd be interested."

Charlie gave her a speaking look. "Oh? Who?"

"Well, naturally, I could head the field team. I have a resume that would make your Minister stammer and that's just my field work. And Bethany is probably one of the best seismographers I've ever worked with."

"Whose Bethany?" Charlie didn't recall a Bethany but Nat spoke as if he knew her. "I haven't met her."

"Sure you have," Nat told him. "My student secretary?"

"The girl with the stiletto knife fingernails?" Charlie was incredulous. Everyone at the table laughed, including Natalie.

"Yes, but she always gets rid of the fake nails for field work. She can pinpoint a dig site with unerring accuracy using her sonar equipment and..." Those at the table began to get glazed expressions as Natalie launched into a lecture on the methods of field research and dig procedures. "So, if you just get a few wizards that are willing to learn non-magical methods to suit whatever red tape paperwork is required by the Ministry of Magic, cooperation will be achieved."

"Um, great!" Remus attempted to excite the atmosphere from its torbid stupor of her lecture. "Sounds like you've got a plan."

Nat gave a satisfied and confident nod. "I've always got a plan."

Everyone noted Charlie's twitch but Natalie ignored it.

* * *

"So its a done deal?"

Both Charlie and Nat heard these words the following week but from different sources. Charlie heard it from his father and elder brother and Nat heard it from her brother and sister-in-law.

"Yes," was their reply. "We head for Romania in a week's time. The team is assembled and the plan is set in motion."

Snuggled in their shared tent, Nat and Charlie were basking in the afterglow of lovemaking. "So, Nat," Charlie asked her, caressing her arm lovingly. "You can make a decent plan."

"When it comes to prehistoric animals," she informed him loftily in her best scholarly tone, "my plans are the best."

"Well, I won't argue with this one," he told her and they began to snuggle once again.

The End


End file.
